The Indian runner duck book; the only authoritative American book about this marvelous egg machine

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT:

The
Indian Runner

Duck Book

The Only Authoritative American
Book about this
Marvelous Egg Machine

Text and Photographs
c.. 5. VALENTINE
v4

‘“They say she did!”’

‘“Who did ?’”’

‘“The Indian Runner Duck.”’
‘Did what ?”’

‘‘Laid 320 eggs in one year.’’

Second Edition
Revised and Enlarged

Price in Paper 75 cents post paid ~ -Cleth Edition $1.00, postage 5 cents

RIDGEWOOD, N. J.

Poof. VALENTINE

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Copyright, 1911, by
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The Runner a-running did trippingly run

To help out the farmer and lads;

The mortgage wiped out and the College bills paid:
Who says she shall rank ’mongst the fads?

Press of
ERNEST FAIRMAN DOW
West Newton, Massachusetts

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THE INDIAN RUNNER
DUCK BOOK

CONTENTS

Chapter
I. Some Guesses and Some Facts About Indian Runners.
Il. English History, Views and Standard.
Il}. The Present Show Quality of American Standard Indian
Runners.
IV. Comparison of English and American Types.
V. The Indian Runners Making History in 1g1o.
VI. The Indian Runners Making History in 1911.
VII. The Worst About the Indian Runner.
VIII. “The Best About the Indian Runner.
IX. The Indian Runner and the Farm.
X. Feeding Methods Safe for All.
XI. System and Forethought in Making a Market.
XII. Educating the Market.
XIII. Selling and Cooking Value of Indian Runner Eggs.
XIV. Some Spurious and Some Genuine Indian Runners.
XV. The Future of the Indian Runners in America.
XVI. The Newer Variety, the White Runner.

Some Guesses and Some Facts About

INDIAN RUNNERS —

CHAPTER ‘i

I think it was about 1904 or 1905 that the first important
literature concerning the Indian Runner Ducks was published in
this country. At about this time, good articles, dealing with the
wonderful qualities of this new breed were published in at least
three of our poultry periodicals. Soon, breeders, here and there,
began to try them in a somewhat gingerly way, as though rather
expecting a gold brick. The great service which this early litera-
ture did the breed was to call public attention strongly to it,
through what then seemed the exorbitant claims made for these
birds as layers.

After a few years Mr. Irving Cook took up this breed,
advertising continuously and rather strikingly. As he began
the work when young and enthusiastic, and, later, gave his en-
tire strength to his Indian Runner business, the Runners soon
found themselves in the midst of a “boom.” But even before
him several men who still breed the Runners were at work with

this breed.

As soon as the breed began to attract keen attention, some

breeders who wished to improve it in every possible way began
to make inquiries as to its origin. One early breeder who made
every effort to get the true history about this time reports that
even then “it seemed to be a matter of surmise. All the writers’
ideas on the subject seemed to be vague, and many conflicting
statements were made.” Some of the causes for this haziness
and conflict of statement I have been able to run down.
_ Much misconception arose through an accident. The first
two detailed descriptions of the breed which I noted in American
publications were from writers across the big waters, one in
New Zealand, the other in Ireland. Birds in these countries
would naturally have come from England, and be of English
type. H. DeCourcy’s article was so straightforward and sen-
sible, yet so conservative that it seemed to give the public good
ground for confidence in the breed. Unfortunately, this early
article gave the West Indies as the original home of the Indian
Runner. This statement has been copied by many, while others
have given a widely different origin. In a recent circular, the
matter was disposed of in this way: ‘Coming originally from
the West Indies, they are a cross of Rouen and Wild Mallard.”
Of the three supposed facts given here (West Indian origin,
Rouen blood, Mallard blood,) probably not one could be proven,
though the last might have some credibility through the fact that
most breeds of ducks are descended from the Mallard.

I have long suspected that the DeCourcy statement, as
printed in this country, was an office, or “proof” error. Trying
to get at the facts, I wrote to Mr. DeCourcy in October, 1910,
inquiring if this were not the case. The reply was directly to
the point: “If my article says ‘West’ it was a misprint,—or
perhaps, a clerical error of mine.” As the real, native home of
the Indian Runner has long been believed to be the East Indies,
it 1s quite easy to see how such an error could arise through

the misplacement of a letter or two. At no other period except

Io

when the breed was just being introduced could such an error
have worked so much mischief as to the facts*.

Among the early breeders here were Mr. Cook, Mr. Fay
Davis, M. V. Decker and, in 1900, A. J. Hallock. Mr. W.
Delano’s name has also been given me as an early breeder, but
I have been unable to get any information from this source. It
will be admitted without question, I think, that our one reliance
for the early history of the breed rn TnIs COUNTRY must be the
statements of the earliest breeders.

While the “West Indies story” was going the rounds, with
no one contradicting it, and gaining strength through repetition,
the British birds were being quietly bred for sume time, before
the public began to awaken to the value of the Runners. The
Davids brothers, of Kansas, began about 1902, Davis in 1897,
Hallock in 1900. These three, I know, had their birds from
Great Britain. I think there is no room for doubt that all the
other early breeders had stock from the same source, either
direct or through contemporary breeders. Since it appears that
the earliest specimens here came from British sources, it seems
to be only ordinary common-sense to take British testimony as
to their origin. The English early history—as far as it is his-
tory, and not supposition, at least—should be admitted to be the
true history. At all events, the guesses and “impressions” of
later breeders here, have absolutely no value.

During the season of 1911 not less than 300 breeders have
been advertising Indian Runners. There may have been more,
but I have a list showing this number. Seven years ago, Reliable

* Although this book has passed through one edition, and although
the Secretary of the Indian Runner Duck Club of England has for
some time been advertising “new blood direct from the native Indian
source,” the West Indian story is still’ being given as to origin. Mr.
T. F. McGrew, a man whose word is credited here, is saying that he
has investigated, and that he “knows” whereof he speaks, and con-
siders the American Standard bird all right. It thus becomes a ques-
tion as to whom one will believe: the men who have known the birds
for half a life-time and who claim also to have brought them recently
from their native home, or one who thinks they do not know what they
are talking about!

it

Poultry Journal—for years.a- favorite ; “medium with the : duck
breeders—carried only. two. Indian;. Ropner.. -acvertisements: in
May in the Classified lists. The Runners have appeared almost
wholly i in the classified lists ; ; since, they. seem: to have been almost
universally welcomed as an. accessory. to other. . breeds. of fancy:

fowls. At all seyents, they. have sold: so easi ilysthat: bbl ‘but
classified advertising has been necessary, apparently. ~ |
One of the two who were’ thus: advertising: i was
Cook. In 1906 he blossomed out as” the breeder of “the only’ true
fawn and white colors, and the world’s heaviest laying strain.”
He had, then, five ‘competitors in. the classified colttmn.’ Ré-
membering that this was ‘only five years ago, we may well be
amazed at.the advance which the Runners have so recently madé
in public favor. According to these figures, the fawn and white
type became “the only true” just about five years ago. It may
be remembered, also, that this was the year the Standard which
breeders had followed since up to 1910, appeared. sah

It would seem that, even in Great Britain, the Runners were
not well and widely known so very much longer than they have
been known here. In 1893, four years before Mr. Davis re-
ceived his first birds, a book on poultry for profit was put out
by a Britisher who had previously written another poultry book,
and who might have been thought to be fairly well posted. He
mentions only three breeds of ducks, but takes occasion to re-
mark: “It is much to be regretted that no steps have been taken

to breed laying strains of ducks.”

The history of the Runner in England, however, is easily
to be followed back for about twenty-five years. If it becomes
hazy as we go farther back, this need not surprise the Yankées
who have managed so to conceal their tracks in something like
fifteen years that in a new book advertised as the best in
America, and giving SIXTEEN ENTIRE LINES to the Runners, it
is plainly stated that the origin of these ducks cannot be traced

12

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authentically. But a Rouen cross is admitted. Was that Rouen
cross a Yankee contribution?

If, as no one really doubts, the Indian Runner Ducks came
to us from England, it would seem, indeed, the part of common-
sense, and of courtesy no less, to accept the story of their origin
as presented by the best and oldest English breeders. American
cleverness, however, professes to have discovered that the Brit-
‘ishers, no matter how decent people they be, are. presumably
equivocating about the origin of the Indian Runner Duck.

The juxtaposition of a quasi-Yankee head and a Belgic
head has brought up since 1900 a new story, to the effect that
the Britishers did not get their Runners from East India or any
other old place whence old sea-captains come out of obseurity,
but just across the channel in Belgium! But they have. care-
lessly omitted to tell us how it happened that when those Belgian
ducks flew (?) across the channel, they happened to light in
County Cumberland, away off to the north-west, as far as pos-
sible from Belgium. Frankly, I think this story very far-
fetched. For, the English certainly could not be ignorant of
the existence of these thousands of Belgian ducks. If they were
really the same thing as the Indian Runners it would be well
known on both sides of the channel, in which case the only
possible conclusion would be that the English breeders have
deliberately clouded their origin, then lied about it for these
scores of years. I do not believe fair-minded Americans wish
to support this unworthy view.

I think it was early in Nov., 1911, that I received from a
southern correspondent, a letter stating that a Tennessee breeder
had personally told him of seeing Indian Runners in their native
home in the East Indies. I wrote the Tennessee man for fur-
ther information, but my letter was ignored.

On Dec. 2, 1911, nearly a week after the matter for this
edition had gone to the printer, a correspondent wrote me as
follows: “A few days ago, I got a scorching letter from a cus-

13

tomer who enclosed a clipping from ‘Farm and Fireside.’”. The ©
story told in the clipping followed. I looked it up, finding then
that [ had seen it and dismissed it as negligible, when it came
out, some months previous. It was a simple story, told by an
English woman now living in Virginia, of how she had suggested
the name for the Runners, nearly thirty years ago, because of
the “celebrated runner, an Indian, named Deerfoot,”’ the world’s
champion long-distance runner at that time. |

The inevitable “old sea captain” (another one!) figured in
this story as the source from whence the ducks came. But the
one point needing special notice is that the Virginian lady stated
she, herself, “sent eggs and the breed all over the world,
some very early to Belgium and Holland, France and Germany.”
She also affirmed: “There are no Runners in India, only what
went from England to a Maharajah, sent by Mr. J. H. Wilson,
a great poultry enthusiast, who was also a breeder and exhibitor
and judge, and was instrumental in getting the Indian Runner
Club formed.”

Mr. Wilson was an early Sec’y of the Club in England—
doubtless the first. We may call him as witness that at least
one inference which has been drawn from this story is not valid:
Fortunately, a letter from him is in existence in America, dating
back some years, in which Mr. Wilson stated that to his own
knowledge, his strain had not then been crossed for fifty years.

It can be only the name that is but thirty years old, in any event.

It comes back to the conclusion which I have more than once
suggested: viz., that the question is, in essence, simply one of
whom we elect to believe, when those who “know” tell stories
of such opposite tenor. It is not impossible that the Virginian
named the Runners, unless we can prove that they bore this
name earlier than thirty years ago. It has been stated that they
bore other, early names. But, if the above story of names and
shipments be true, it disproves rather effectually some prominent
stories about “the sham Indian Runner.” Yet, if true, why—

14

why did none of these Holland, Belgian and German ducks bear
the name “Indian Runner’ from the first? And why does that
“best authority,’ Mr. L. Van der Snickt, say that “the same
duck” has been “selected for centuries” in Holland, Belgium and

France ?

15

English History, Views and
Standard

CHAPTER, Ti

After we trace back to a certain period, or, possibly, forty
years or so, the history of the Indian Runner in England be-
comes somewhat hazy. English breeders say that the earliest
literature on the breed—or, at least, that which goes farthest
back, is a little treatise by John Donald, who lived in County
Cumberland, where the breed was first known. In this book,
Mr. Donald states that the Indian Runners were brought to
England by a sea captain, about sixty years before his book
was written. H. DeCourcy, of Ireland, a writer whom we
know quite well in America—thinks it is now twenty years since
he first saw this (undated) book. This would make it eighty
years since the breed first made any history in England that is
now remembered—a period so remote that none would now be
alive who had personal knowledge of the facts and of its intro-
duction and earliest history.

One of the English treatises, “The Indian Runner,” was
written by Jacob Thomlinson, who first knew this duck in County

16

Cumberland. He refers to Mr. Donald’s (earlier) work, and
also to a brief treatise by Mr. Henry Digby, giving credit to these
men for all items not within his own, personal knowledge. ‘The
illustrations in the Thomlinson pamphlet are from drawings
by Mr. J. W. Walton, Secretary of the present Indian Runner
Duck Club. “They give,” says Mr. Thomlinson, “a clear insight
of what a TRUE Runner SHOULD and sHOULD Nor’ be.”

The models from which these pictures were drawn “have
won prizes at the great National Shows.” They were intended

‘

to be used as “a guide to both old and new fanciers, to obtain
a more uniform idea of type and standard.’’ ‘This shows how
English breeders regard Mr. Walton’s drawings, and how they
defer to his knowledge of the breed.

Mr. Thomlinson’s own knowledge of the breed reached back
thirty years, but his treatise was also undated. However, he
gives us a point to rest on by saying that he first took “particular
notice’ of these birds in 1884, when one duck made for him a
record of 180 eggs. As this “completely overshadowed” other
breeds, it was the foundation of Mr. Thomlinson’s vital interest
in the Indian Runners.

From the fact that Mr. Donald was a resident of County
Cumberland, the original seat of Indian Runner culture in Eng-
land, it seemed to follow that he was most likely to be right as
to their origin, and it was to him that the earlier English breeders
looked very largely for information. | ;

The power of the true Indian Runner to stamp its color and
marking, in the case of a cross, is taken as evidence of very
long fixation of its characteristics in the native state. Eighty
per cent of such progeny, it is said will favor the Runner, espe-
cially in characteristic color. This varies considerably above
the proportion given by Mendel’s law.

English breeders seem willing to allow that the long neglect
has made it almost certain that many types would appear in
various parts of the Island; for, the original blood must have

17

been largely tainted during the slowness of the nation to recog-
nize the peculiar value of the breed, and to place it early under
the care of some organization which would watch out for the
preservation of its most valuable and vital characteristics. Like
the Rhode Island Red in this country, the breed had a sadly
~ neglected youth. |

Quite a number of importations have in later years, been
made into this country from the flocks of Mr. J. W. Walton,
“Honorable Secretary” of the Indian Runner Duck Club of
England. Mr. Walton says that the best birds have always
been in a very few hands. He wrote me, personally, that even
in England “breeders, exhibitors and judges fell into nearly
every possible trouble with Indian Runners and ‘reduced them
from an outstanding and most distinctive bird to a common
type, small, cross-bred duck with fairly even markings. That
was the Exhibition Runner (?) of eight or nine years ago. 100
per cent of American (Standard-bred) Runners and 99 per cent
of English are wrong in shape, and position of legs. Color
without type is of no value.”

Mr. Walton has also said that it was quite certain that many
earlier judges of Indian Runners “had no acquaintance with the
genuine Runner.” It was under this strained situation that the
Indian Runner Duck Club in England took up the work, and
formed a Standard calculated to preserve the distinctiveness of
this most remarkable breed. The birds illustrated in English
poultry journals at about this time, according to Mr. Walton,
“showed strong evidence of Mallard blood.”

It was within the decade before the English breeders found
their bearings that most of our earlier importations were made.
This shows how strong was the probability that many of these
earlier importations were of mixed blood. It was about or
just previous to this time that the Indian Runner Duck Club
intervened to save the Runners from extinction as to their
most distinctive characteristics. It superseded the Standard

18

formed by Mr. Donald and Mr. Digby, (with which there had
been dissatisfaction for some time) by one better designed “to
retain the valuable utility and artistic qualilties” of the breed.
A part of its object, as stated, was to keep the exhibition of the
Runner “free from dishonorable and fraudulent practices.”

In order to get at the English ideal of shape, it may be well
to give a word to “the old, cod, soda-water bottle.” This bottle,
whose form is given as a general model to work toward, tapered
toward each end. ‘The taper is gradual, in the bird, from the
thighs back. Mention is made of the funnel-like expansion
where neck passes into body. The accepted angle of carriage
is up to sixty-five degrees when the bird is traveling, and from
this to seventy-five degrees when alert. The neck is a strong
feature, the head and neck together carrying thirty points.
LENGTH, THINNESS, and FINENESS are especially demanded.
In these points, the great majority of American Runners fail,
breeders seeming to overlook the added beauty and grace given
by a slender neck.

I shall not try to give the English Standard demands in
their entirety, but will refer to those which need study, in view
of the swinging away in type and color by the American Stand-
_ard, and by the birds shown in America. The color demanded
in contrast with the white is a fawn, rather warm and soft, some-
times expressed also as of “ginger color,’ a term which the
American breeders have adopted, but which I have not seen in
the American shows. The newest males shown here are de-
cidedly of a pinkish, rather than ginger tone, a shade which
carries directly toward the claret which is disqualified by the
American Standard. The color is required to be uniform, from
surface to skin.

The chief variations between color-tones, from English. and
American points of view, are in the head and rump of the drake
and the body, fawn color and overlay on the shoulders. .The
last point is often strong in color, the pencilings being rather

19

distinct, but they are supposed to blend into a warm fawn of
the true shade desired, when seen from a short distance away.
The trick in getting color on the English-bred Runner, is to
get one tone a good ginger, and the other as near it as is pos-
sible, the outer portion being the lighter. As this is the portion
most visible on the breast and body, it gives the appearance of
evenness, aS soon as the new coat loses a little in strength of
color. If too weak in color when the new coat is first donned,
it will be washy in the extreme after a few weeks, and will
well justify the term so often applied to the lighter birds bred
to American Standard, “a dirty white.” This loss of color is
one of the worst things that can befall a true Runner. I am
loath to use the word “true” at all in speaking of the Runners,
since it has been so juggled and made to mean such widely dif-
ferent things. “Genuine” might, perhaps, be a better term.

The full stern of the upturning, Pekin type, is considered
a defect, although weight here cannot be allowed to count
strongly against females that have laid one or two seasons. The
rump of the male and its head may be of a dull, rather bronzy
green. |

The English Standard lays emphasis on the point that type
' must receive greater consideration than color or markings.
Short, thick necks, squat specimens, smallness at the expense of
the long shape, are decided defects. Slate and dark red in
drakes are not favored. |

It should be perfectly plain to any normal mind that the
English type of Indian Runner, being so much older than any-
thing in America, justly lays claim to the title of “The True
Indian Runner.” There are many breeders in America who are
breeding as nearly as possible to the English (genuine) Stand-
ard, possibly yielding a very little on color in order not to have
a bird too widely different from the one demanded by the
American Standard. Up to 1910, (so convinced were many
of our judges, even, that the American Standard was not re-

20

quiring the true type) the English-bred birds have been able to
get, in some instances, very good prizes, though not often the
best. In Jan., 1910, such a male bird took second at Madison
Square Garden. From what I hear, I judge that the ax is to
be applied to such birds at future shows. The new Standard
is silent except as its requirement of “fawn” may be regarded
as penalizing two shades of fawn. The revision committee, it
was reported, did declare against “concentric penciling,” what-
ever that may be taken to mean.

“Whose birds was the American Standard made to fit?”
asked a correspondent, suspiciously, not long ago. The only
testimony given to the public on this point inheres in the adver-
tisements of two of them at the time of the change, that onLY
their birds met the requirements of the new revision!

For months before the latest revision of the American
Standard of Perfection, a sustained fight was made to educate
the public, and incidentally, the Revision Committee, up to a
knowledge of the real type of the genuine Indian Runners, and
of the injury the proposed action would be to the breeders of
the English type, and to the breed. Perhaps a dozen breeders
took part in this, one being a poultry judge. But the Standard
had called for an entirely different type for so many years, that
the Revisers were simply afraid to give any recognition to the
breeders of the genuine Indian Runners. Indeed, it was scarcely
to be expected that the Standard-makers would so publicly
acknowledge a sustained error. Moreover, the known custom
in this country, with all breeds, of making the Standard to fit
the aims and ideals of the greatest number of the more powerful
breeders, stood in the way. It is no doubt true that there are
more of the present breeders who favor the “plain” type of solid
fawn, with white, than of the breeders who favor the penciled
fawn type. This penciled type is not insistently penciled in
the favored specimens, except when the feathers are first grown,
but is rather dimly penciled in two shades so harmonious and

Zi

so near together in tone that they gently blend into a color which
appears as a solid color as the season advances. The cuts
shown herewith, of birds soon after molting, will easily give
proof of this.

The extreme Standard weight in this country is four pounds
for females and four and one-half pounds for matured males.
I have seen English males weighing five and one-half pounds,
but this is not common. Five pounds is reasonably common.

The preferred weights mentioned in the (present) Eng-
lish Standard are three and one-half to four pounds for ducks,
four: to five pounds for drakes. Head, bill, eyes and neck take:
nearly one-third the points in the English Standard; body, shape
and carriage together comprise 45 points—nearly one-half the
exhibition value—while color, markings and condition receive the
other 25 points. That is, color, even with marking and condi-
tion added, counts only one-fourth the show value. :

I have never noted in the ranks of the breeders of the orig-
inal variety, any feeling of enmity toward the favored American
type, in itself. But the feeling is very general—I think I may
say, fairly universal—that the breed name belongs of right to
the original type. The other should have come in, if come it
must, as a second variety, with a variety name. It is precisely
as though the Silver Penciled Wyandotte should attempt to push
aside the original Silver Wyandotte, and make insistent claim
to being “the only true Wyandotte.” Surely “sHapE makes the
breed, color (only) the variety.’ Is it not so, breeders?

It is the great hope of those who are breeding really good
Runners of the White-egg type, that our Standard makers may
undergo an operation for strabismus before the time of the next
revision. We'd like them to SEE STRAIGHT!

In November, 1910, after the first edition of this book had
gone to the printers, English interest in Indian Runners was
keyed up by a sensational exhibit at the Crystal Palace Show.
This exhibit was made in the name of Mr. J. W. Walton, and

22

consisted of a team of amazing Indian Runner ducks shown
there. Mr. Walton gained all five prizes in each class. The
authoritative report in “The Feathered World,” London, said,
concerning this sweeping victory: “And well he might, if an
upright carriage has anything to do with the qualifications of a
Runner. There’s an old saying, ‘Like water off a duck’s back’,
but I fail to see how it could be applied to, say, the second prize
drake, for he stood so absolutely perpendicular, I doubt if any
water could possibly get there in order to run off again; if it
did, the process would be a decidedly rapid one.”

The females were described as of ‘“‘a soft, sweet shade, be-
tween a fawn and a buff, with exquisite lacing throughout.”
(Those who contend for the greater beauty of the solid fawn,
should note how our English fellow-breeders regard the lacing,
or penciling.) The especially upright carriage characterized all
the birds of this “wonderful” team, the best specimen being de-
scribed thus: “This bird, when the least disturbed or excited,
stood perfectly erect, tail down between legs, a level line down
back from head to tip of tail.’ The reporter spoke of meeting
one onlooker who said jokingly that he “should always dread the
danger of the bird falling backward.”

Doubtless this gentleman had the right point of view, as a
bird not absolutely erect would give a better impression, and,
possibly, when we get past the point where we must stress up-
rightness so much, we shall not admire most the bird which
looks to be in danger. of overbalance backward.

Mr. Walton is somewhat reticent about these mysterious
Runners. He has felt so strongly the danger to the breed from

a certain attitude in England which led nearly to its ruin, some
years ago, that he resolved to keep full control over the new
“onder” ducks, in his own hands and those of one or two
friends, who have worked with him, till its characteristics were
well impressed on the best of the earlier stock. None of the
birds was offered for sale at the Palace Show, the prohibitive
price of a thousand guineas each being catalogued.

23

Now, however, the Secretary of the English I. R. Duck
Club is offering “real Indian Runners from the purest de-
scendants of the old stock, and new blood from the native Indian
source.” ‘The Challenge Cup and the International Crystal
Palace Medal and many other Palace wins gained by Mr. Wal-
ton’s birds are simply material proofs of the value in which
his birds are held by the best Indian Runner experts of Britain.
I have considered it necessary to mention and to stress these facts
and these proofs, since Belgian “authorities” have persisted in:
claiming that the so-called Indian Runners were only an inferior
type of a common Belgian Duck. On the strength of this, two
or three in this country who should know better have talked far
too much about the “Sham Indian Runners,” the “nopular fal-
lacy” (?) that the Indian Runners came from India, and the
“careless and unreliable” people who have ventured not to agree
with these same unwise “expert” (?) talkers: :

The particular talker who said: “There is absolutely no
foundation to the many statements that the race came from
either the East or West Indies,” should perhaps think a bit be-
fore writing more about the Indian Runners. It is rather diff-
cult to convince those who have the birds and who know where
they got them (after innumerable difficulties and disappoint-
ments, and several futile attempts, as Mr. Walton says) that
they don’t exist, and that they don’t come from there “anny-
how’!

It was the same talker, too, who came out plump with the
statement that Mr. Donald, through his booklet, “was strongly
active in clouding the real cradle of the Runners, by claiming
that they were first imported into England in an India ship.
He is also father to the statement that Rouen blood was used
in getting larger size, thus necessitating the disqualification for
claret breast. Concerning the remark about. Mr. Donald, Mr.
Walton says: “So far from Donald’s pamphlet clouding their
origin, if it had not been for that pamphlet the new birds might

24

never have been located and secured. Donald’s pamphlet is
vindicated and his facts in the main substantiated. The early
birds, without a doubt, came by an India ship; and the assertion
that Donald clouded the cradle of the Runners is absolutely
unwarranted and untrue. The reverse is the fact. X—(the
talker) by his own writings proves that he, for one, knows noth-
ing about the Indian Runner. From first to last, his article is
wrong, and how any one with such ignorance of Indian Runners
could profess to correct others is beyond my comprehension.”

The above facts go to show that the modern English type
of Indian Runner, beautifully penciled (or laced, as the words
have come to be almost interchangeably used) very erect in car-
riage, and racy in type, is immovably fixed as the real distinctive
and charming correct type of Indian Runner. ‘To it belongs
the breed name;: to it, the first place. Others must follow it,
as variations upon its excellent characteristics, and must come
purely as varieties. If to say this be “partisan,” surely it is the
only logical partisanship, and precisely in line with our American
Standard rulings concerning breeds and varieties.

There is one point in especial about the carriage of the
Indian Runners, to which I want to direct attention. The most
distinctive, characteristic Runner pose may be compared to that
of a pointer dog. When the bird is quickened to alertness by
eagerness or by danger, the back stiffens and becomes almost a
straight line from head to stern. Only a few of the best ducks
in America show this pose, as far as I have seen them. A very
large number have an angle at base of neck, which makes the
bird appear ungainly. Many do not apprehend this as a defect,
if the head is held high. But the head may be very high, yet
the bird may not show more than 45 degrees of erectness in the
body, and when this is the case, the angle at base of neck is
very unpleasantly prominent. Sometimes the head will be car-
ried high, while the body is held less than at an angle of 45.
The lower the body, in proportion, the more prominent the angle.

25

I have discarded elegant birds in shape and otherwise, because
of this one fault. It will be a long time before all our birds
or even a majority of them show the straight line of back, but
it is what we ought to work toward. When a bird can-“point”
nearly vertical in pose, then we have what I consider a bird of
good carriage. For some reason, this pose does not seem to
come as naturally to the males as to the females. At least,
many more of the females I have seen show it, when excited.

PA)

The Present Show Quality of
American Standard Runners

CHAPTER JIL

The American Standard type of Indian Runners, as seen
in the best shows, is not only a different type of bird from the
English Runner, but it is in the main decidedly different from
the ideal which has, up to the present date of writing, been pic-
tured and described in the American Standard of Perfection.
The ideals of the breeders have been gradually changing, as to
color, and the birds that win now are quite different in color
from those that won a few years ago. The allowance of gray
for so many years, as well as the preferred fawn, while possibly
it seemed necessary at the beginning, has not worked to the good
of the breed. A far larger proportion of males still come
with gray breasts than would have been the case could the
Standard have demanded, from the first, that fawn should be
the one color, without the gray as an alternate.

I have studied much over the peculiar demands at some
points of the American Standard of Perfection, in its dealing
with Indian Runners. Its ideal pictures in the 1905 American
Standard are near the demands for good Runners, as laid down

27

by the English Standard. At two points in the description,
however, the American demand swings quite away from the
English. Where the latter calls for legs placed well back, and
makes legs placed too wide apart a defect, the American Stand-
ard demands legs “set well apart.” And whereas the English
Standard calls for bronzy green on the head and rump of male
the American Standard has demanded as the ideal, for the 5
years previous to 1t91o0 a light fawn color, which must be even
throughout the entire plumage, except where the white markings
should be seen.

The American demand for “light fawn’? has now been.
modified to “fawn” and the color is really a peculiar, almost
indescribable light pinky-brown. It is, without doubt, a beauti-
ful color and very much admired; but so much had everything
been subordinated to color-tone of the “fawn” that the winning
birds at the great New York State Fair, in September, 1910,
showed nasty, white splotches in the fawn, spoiling the color-
marking most decidedly. |

In November, 190, I went to the earlier show held in
New York, chiefly to study the Indian Runners. These picked
birds were mainly very good in the even color now preferred
for both sexes—really a handsome pinkish fawn. Only a few
were good in carriage; scarcely one had a fine neck; and fully
thirty per cent were notably splashed with white in the fawn
of the back. A neck defect which breeders have not seemed
to take into account (the proof being that it is so general) is
that, the neck being already too short and thick, is made to look
shorter and thicker by having the dividing line between the
colors too high. It is often cut squarely, but in about one-third
the single specimens shown, there was only about an inch to an
inch-and-a-half between the cheek marking and the fawn of
the lower neck. The Walton ideal sketch shows the white on a
slender neck and nearly five-eighths the length of the fawn
marking on the side of the breast, at the point where it extends

28

entirely to the square cut in marking across the breast. This
gives a widely different appearance to the bird.

The illustrations of Indian Runners in the poultry publica-
tions generally, up to 1909, were not of a sort to furnish much
of an ideal to breeders in general. ‘There were a few birds of
typical carriage in this country. (Even in 1911 they are still com-
paratively few; I mean of those which will hold the high carriage
practically all the time). The photographs from life commonly
published, gave little hint of the Runner which the “Ideal” in
the 1905 Standard showed. ‘The new Standard contains a new
and improved “ideal.” Some years ago, Mrs. Mabel Feint
made a pencil sketch from life which was very good for the
time, though a trifle too full in breast, not showing the straight
under line of body which is typical of the real Runner, and
which even the American Standard “Ideal’’ demands. This cut
is still in use in some quarters. The photographs I have seen,
even up to the present time, have not been, as a rule, as good
as Mrs. Feint’s “Ideal.” She was a breeder of Runners for
some years, and the birds she carried are still bred as a distinct
strain. In her time, these won over many of those from the
more prominent breeders. The American type of birds are

‘

claimed to be “sports” from birds imported from England. In-
asmuch as English breeders, for many of the earlier years, flirted
with the solid-color will-o’-the-wisp, it would not be at all strange
if some of the birds from England at that early date should
throw sports. But the better English breeders have long decried
and regretted their waste of time, and the detriment they worked
the breed for a period before they learned to breed strictly to
the typical color.

One needs to handle Runners for some time, and learn
their typical carriage and their habits of behavior at different
periods of growth not only, but at different stages, in order to
criticise them fairly. Probably it has occurred to very few
that it is almost impossible for a laying bird to hold her typical

29

carriage and form. There is abundant reason for this, with
the Runners. A single I. Runner egg ready for exclusion, is
likely to weigh three ounces, and the ducks are quite reasonably
likely to lay six days out of seven, during at least a portion of
the year. Prof. James E: Rice, by experiment,: found thatva
color-fed hen deposited some fourteen layers in the formation
of an egg, showing that this egg had been fourteen days in grow-
ing from the pin-head ovule to the two-ounce product of average
exclusion. If we might suppose a duck to be 14 days in grow-
ing an egg, from the beginning to its readiness for exclusion,
and laying six eggs in a week, she must be carrying within her
narrow body, at one time, twelve eggs, of diminishing sizes from
the three-ounce finished product, to the tiny, but enlarging ovule
of the egg cluster. It is, of course, impossible to conceive that
such a weight of eggs should not change both the shape and
the carriage of the female, for the time being. Thus it comes
about that we have to speak of these birds as in “exhibition
form” and “laying form,” while there is still another period of
nearly half a year, during which they eat so much that they
appear rather logy, and assume the carriage of maturity only
at intervals. This is during their growth toward maturity, and
we need for this period a third term, such as “growing form,”
to describe them then.

One of my correspondents who is very anxious for the true
Indian Runner to become well known and well liked, rather
regretted the fact that Mr. J. W. Walton’s pen pictures of ideal
Runners were published in this country, since they show such
an exaggerated type to American eyes that those buyers without
experience would be dissatisfied with any average Runner that
could now be sent them. I may say, however, that in my ex-
perience, no fowl ever sent out has given such good, general
satisfaction as the type of penciled Runners now bred in this
country. Nearly all the letters of acknowledgment which I re-
ceive, as well as those which other breeders have shown me,

30

*express the greatest satisfaction with the average birds. A short
time ago, I saw one which read thus: “I have never received
anything by express which gave me so much satisfaction and
delight as the coop of Indian Runners you sent me.” These
were the average run of low priced birds, say at about two
dollars each. |
| There is a reason for this in the fact that, although but
few of the Runners hold the distinctive carriage all the time,
and, being few, are held for the high prices, yet the average
Runner will almost invariably show off nicely whenever fright-
ened, or excited or free to run and pose. And I have never
known any breed which seemed to possess so much of interest
for its breeders, whether they were, or were not, finished fan-
ciers. }

But, there is much more to the question of true type in
Indian Runners than has yet appeared in our survey. More and
more, as the years pass, are fanciers falling into line on the
declaration that no breed can survive long and prosper, even
as a fancy fowl, tnless it is first a capital utility fowl. This
may be called, I think, a foundation tenet of The Fancy at the
present time. Few advertisers permit themselves ta. put forth
any claims to trade without supporting them strongly with
testimony and assertion as to the superior utility value of their
breed, and especially of their particular strain of that breed.
Even the story of the superlative fancy value of the “S10,000
hen” must be buttressed by the statement that her progeny lay
at the rate of 83 eggs in four months; and is not this by implica-
tion, 249 eggs a year, with chances of 250 in leap years?

It goes without saying, almost, that the Indian Runner,
being a champion layer and a prolific breeder, will soon cease
to be of much use to The Fancy, through sheer over-production,
unless the farmers awake very widely to its value. The Indian
Runner must become—and that very soon—the farmer’s duck.

In the Runner camp, a rumble has been growing for some

31

/

little time. During 1910 it rose almost to a roar. The Runner
of the emasculated type called for by the American Standard
of Perfection, although lovely to look upon for color, in its best
estate, has a great weakness as a producer of eggs for market,
in the fact that it laid a large proportion of green eggs (a few
call them “blue’’). It does not need much argument, I think,
to convince any one with an unbiased mind that the crystal-
white egg produced by the English Standard Runner is far and
away more desirable for a market egg than one tinted more or
less deeply with green.

A breeder of American Standard Runners, having had much
trouble and complaint regarding the large output of green eggs,
wrote to another asking counsel, and saying, among other things,
that the green-egg type were not so good layers as the others.
The attitude of the recipient of this letter is shown in a brief
paragraph from the reply: “It is said in England fully 80 per
cent of the (so-called) Indian Runners have very little Indian
Runner blood in them, and a still worse condition prevails here,
because of our Standard. Owing to this Standard, there are
very few genuine Indian Runners to be found.”

This sweeping statement harks back to the fact that Eng-
lish breeders, as I have noted above, tried so hard to “improve”
their Runners that they nearly ran them into the ground, and
came near losing the real Runner completely. At present, not
only in England, but in her colonies, the feeling of the better
breeders against any admixture of outside blood is intense. In
Australia, the birds that won in the great competition were Eng-
lish, Standard-bred Runners. Mr. Dunnicliffe, the secretary for
the competitions, as I note elsewhere, told me personally that

nothing else will be accepted in Australia.

Comparison of
English and American Types

CHAPTER IV

For a breed that is sweeping the country with such amazing
swiftness, the Indian Runner had received up to 1910 far too
little really critical attention. It has been bred in England sev-
eral times as many years as it has been noticed and bred here,
and in both countries one craze of the average breeder seems
to have been to modify it in order to get more size. This is
folly, even from the utility point of view, for the minute you
increase size you increase eating capacity, and eating capacity
beyond what is needed to produce flesh and eggs is dead against
economy in an animal that has a specific, great point, like the
egg-laying tendency of the Indian Runner.

Many breeders of the Indian Runner have been calling at-
tention to the proud fact that Indian Runners won the Australian
Contest prize with a marvelous record, as announced a year ago.
But the majority of them have not a shadow of right to use this
as a talking point for their birds, since it was not the American
Standard Runner which made these records.

33

Believing that this was the fact, 1 wrote, some time ago, to
Mr. Dunnicliffe, Organizing Secretary, in connection with the
Hawkesbury contests, asking him what kind of Runners were
in these Australian contests. He very kindly wrote me the
facts, which supported my belief. These are his exact words:
“The Indian Runners kept in Australia have been bred from
stock imported from England. The English Standard is fol-
lowed by all our poultry clubs and shows. As is the case else-
where, there are people here who breed Rouen blood into them
‘to improve the size, but any trace of this blood in them would
knock them out in the shows. In the matter of laying, we
find that any infusion of Rouen blood depreciates them, and
the best laying records have been put up by birds of pure, Eng-
lish blood, selected here for many years for their laying
capacity.”

The American Indian Runner, being bred to our Standard,
is a much modified bird. The distinctive Runner shape has
been subordinated to color, the color lightened, and the value
as a layer lessened, all in order to get a plain contrast to the
white, instead of a penciled one. Perhaps the new manufacture
is prettier; since beauty is largely a matter of opinion, I will
not question that. But we have lost three or four most valuable
characteristics in getting it. The English breeders who at one
period thoughtlessly risked all these to get size, have more
excuse, since they thought this an economic advance.

Within a few days, during rgto, I received two letters, both
from strangers, on the lookout for white-egg Runners. One
of them said that he had been buncoed, for his ‘“fawn and white”
ducks were all colors, many being white. The other wrote:
“T got 100 eggs of -------_, this spring, ordering white,
but getting mixed colors and small eggs, and most of the duck-
lings were: white. |: 1/sent to. and got /ige
layers of large, pale green and white eggs.” One of the firms
mentioned by this correspondent was a Chicago winner, the year

34

he bought, and the other a firm that has had more write-ups
and free readers and puffs than most of the other well-known
water-fowl breeders put together. And I call attention to the
fact that there were two distinct types, from these two different
breeders of American “‘fawns’’, into one, at least, of which white
blood had been introduced. Neither of them was of the true,
white-egg type.

There is one specific point, viz., length—about the genuine
Runner, aside from the carriage, which up to 1910 was scarcely
referred to in periodicals in this country, although the Standard
does say that the birds shall be long and narrow. The long
birds were frequently downed at New York in favor of those
showing the light, even fawn, evenness of color seeming to be
the chief item in a good Runner, from the American point of
view, in addition to good carriage. Some of our show birds do
have fine carriage.

The English Standard gives something definite to go on, in
stating what should be considered “fairly good weights and
lengths ;” though it cautions that these must not count alone, but
must be in connection with well balanced type. It also recom-
mends that judges see the birds on the run before making awards.
But I think these “fair” lengths will open the eyes of our breed-
ers. They are: 25 to 30 inches for ducks, and 28 to 36 inches
for the drakes. Runners, by the yard, as one might say!

The stern, too, is very different from the Pekin type so
often seen here in the winners. Birds that have laid for a con-
siderable time do get heavier at the rear, but the true shape is
quite light at the stern, tapering from the thighs to the tail.
This, with the length and carriage gives a bird whose distinctive-
ness differentiates it from all other types the minute the eye falls
on it. This, to my mind, is what we want, especially as this is
the heavy laying type in this breed, according to testimony.

Judge Clipp has said publicly: “Consulting the numerous
breeders of this famous duck during the show season, nine out

33

of ten would admit that those of the penciled variety were the
best layers.” He also said: “I doubt if there is another fowl
in existence that will lay as many eggs during the year-as the
Indian Runner. Even the Leghorn must take off her hat to
the Indian Runner duck.” Mr. Clipp speaks as a breeder, as
well as a judge.

Mr. Scott, of New Zealand, calls the I. R. the “Queen of
Layers,” and states that his best bird gave him nearly $10.00
worth of eggs in one year. ‘The average price was about 37%4c
per dozen, according to his report of his ““World’s Record.” Of
course, he does not breed the American Runner.

What might be considered to be a mongrel Runner? One,
surely, which had been outbred strongly. What does the Buff
Orpington Duck claim to be? A cross, having Runner blood.
Since we already have a mongrel Runner with a breed name,
(The Buff Orpington) let us beware lest we make the Indian
Runner itself a mongrel by adding other blood, no matter of
what name. The true Runner is so distinctive that it is more
easily injured by ouicrosses, it seems to me, than any other
breed could possibly be. |

It was certainly not more than 13 years after Mr. Thomlin-
son’s first “particular attention” that the first birds were 1m-
ported into this country. This makes it very probable indeed
that the earlier birds imported into America, were very poor
birds, from the present point of view of the English Indian
Runner Duck Club. As they have been bred to the American
Standard now for a number of years, it is perfectly fair to
conclude that few or none of the English Standard-bred ducks
have been imported in recent years. This would follow from
the fact that Americans were breeding away from the English
Standard, and breeding, as is claimed, a sport. I except, of
course, those who are frankly breeding to the English Standard
because they believe it more nearly correct. In Mr. Thomlin-
son’s book appears a portrait of a Canadian duck, “never beaten

36

in Canada,” sketched—as a warning—by the Secretary of the
English I. R. Club. The faults especially named are bad car-
riage, and “wide on legs.” The width between legs and the
solid fawn which the American ideal demands, are regarded
by the English as decidedly detrimental to the breed. “If the
legs are placed wide apart, you are certain to get a waddler
instead of a Runner, and if not placed well back you get hori-
zontal carriage,’ says Mr. Thomlinson. It is true that the Eng-
lish Standard demands an appearance of uniformity of the
darker markings in the body color of the female, but it states
with equal distinctness that these feathers may carry two tones,
one described as “soft fawn,” the other as penciling which is
“brighter and warmer in tint,’ (Another shade of fawn, in fact).
It avers that the overlapping of the feathers makes the females
appear almost solid fawn, quite even in tone. This question
does not come up with regard to the drakes, as they do not show
penciling, in either the American or the English type.

I wish more especially, however, to lay emphasis on the
difference between the two types from the utility standpoint,
for here, I believe, the real fight is to be made. Numbers of
breeders who have had both types affirm that the English Stand-
ard-bred Runners are better layers; laying earlier, more in
numbers, larger eggs, and eggs of better color. The Indian
Runners of the best English type lay eggs of a transparent
whiteness not seen, so far as I know, in any other eggs offered
for table use in the regular markets. They average three
ounces, when the birds are well kept and matured. And, they
are superior to hens’ eggs for nearly all sorts of cooking.

The American Standard-bred ducks, as a whole, lay a con-
siderable proportion of green eggs, though the flocks vary, pos-
sibly, in this. At least, some breeders send out less than others.
I fancy, too, that they make some careful discrimination: one
breeder sent eggs to the then President of the American Poultry
Association, which the latter reported as being less than three

37

per cent. green; while to another, who was a lesser light, were
sent by the same breeder, a lot containing so many green eggs
that the breeder was in utter despair, and forthwith turned
about and bought eggs for hatching, of the English-bred type,
by the hundreds, hatching until late in the season in order to
get enough. I have read the original letters giving these facts.

A letter from Connecticut, received after the hatching sea-
son of 1910, runs as follows: ‘This spring, I set a 240-egg
incubator with so-called Indian Runner ducks. Some of the
eggs were white, but the majority green. The ducklings are
most anything in color, from white to light fawn. I don’t want
an Indian Runner Duck on my place that lays a green egg. The
only thing I am after is ducks that lay white eggs and are prolific
layers.” The demand for the white eggs only is growing so
strong that both the utility man and the breeder of high-grade
Standard exhibition birds are demanding guarantees that the
strain shall lay strictly-white eggs. The only type that comes
anywhere near this, so far as any testimony I have seen or heard,
to date, goes, is the type bred to the English Standard. Those
raisers who are breeding to the American Standard are promis-
ing themselves that they can breed out the green egg by strict
selection. Some aver that they have already done it. I do
not say that this is impossible; but any one knows that it must
be a process of years.

Calling attention again to the fact that the ducks in the
Australian competition—vide Mr. Dunnicliffe’s letter—were Eng-
lish Standard-bred Indian Runners, I will note a few statements
that have been made as to laying capacity of the Indian Runners
—the English Indian Runners, I mean. For, I do not think
there is a certified record published for the American type. It
will be noticed in practically all references to the laying capacity
of the Runners, in this country, that little mention is made of
the records made in the yards of the writers thereof. These
figures are simply copied. A large proportion of all the figures

38

given have come from across the water. One big record came
from New Zealand; one came from Ireland; several came from
Australia. I have two official records made in public work;
also, one, made by Mr. De Courcy’s ducks; one, made by Eng-
lish bred ducks of an American breeder; one, made in England
by Mr. Thomlinson’s ducks. The last-named record is 180,
made in 1884. Mr. Thomlinson states that he has had a few
exceed this in later years. The half-Walton’s have a record of
185 in nine months, made on a northern American farm. The
Australian Competition, a public, official report from birds
handled at an Agricultural College, has been for three successive
years reported as an average of above 200, without meat, and
last made by two pens.

Private claims, for which, so far as J know, no proof is
shown, run winningly from 204 and 209 to 240, 260, 280, and
288. Several breeders claim ducks having a record above 200;
‘one states that his birds lay all winter, and one refers modestly
to one of his ducks with a record of 200 eggs in nine and one-
half months. ‘This is only 21 a month; many Runners are fully
equal to this, during the favorable months. The rub is to get
it during December and the moulting period. The 288 record
hails from England, and I do not know what proofs have been
given as to its authenticity. But, at least, the “plain-clothes”
men, (those who want the plain fawn and white demanded by
the American Standard) cannot consistently claim it, as it was
made by a “different” duck.

During rg1o, I tried for many months to find some verifica-
tion of a record, reported here in 1909, of 320 eggs from one
Indian Runner Duck in a single year. At first, it was reported
here that this record was made in Australia. It was thought to
be a public record. Late in 1910, an English writer and traveller
wrote me that he had seen this duck, about which all the Runner
world was agog. He wrote: “I had the pleasure of seeing

the record duck while I was in New Zealand, as I went to see

a9

the plant of its owner. * * * It is his ‘Wonder’ strain and
laid 320 eggs in 365 days, and 512 eggs in 23 months, going
through two complete moults. He had six ‘Little Wonders,’
bred from this one, entered in the Cambridge Laying Competi-
tion, which were only four and one-half to five and one-half
months old when entered, and had gone through a complete
moult. When I left, had put up the good: total of 900 eggs”
in seven months, notwithstanding these obstacles; the last twelve
weeks’ totals averaging over thirty-nine.”

I have not seen any of Mr. Scott’s ducks, but the photo-
graphs show them to be fair to good in carriage, but rather
heavy in type. Naturally, a record so far beyond what we have
been accustomed to think possible raises many eyebrows among
us. Mr. Scott claims to have five strains, each of which has
made a record of above 200 eggs average, “equal to and over
the 300-egg record.” He tells of a bird which laid 202 when
from 3% to 4% years old; and of three which laid 200 eggs
each in eight and one-half months.

It could not be expected that birds. placed in competition
many miles away from home, in strange hands, could do as well
as they would do at home, under the owner’s careful eye and
hand. But the Cambridge Duck Egg-Laying Test reports,
through its Secretary, that six Scott birds from four and one-half
months old to five and one-half months old when entering the
tests, and moulting twice during the year, made a total of 1301
eggs for the year, “and for 12 weeks averaged over 39 eggs per
week.” This is the pen mentioned above by my correspondent.
This average means thirteen eggs per duck in each two weeks,
for twelve weeks in succession. It is the Indian Runner Ducks’
strongest bid for universal notice!

Personally, I would rather rest the case of the Indian Run-
ner on this record, and the more than 200-egg record of the
Australian Agr’l. College tests for three years m succession.

It seems, however, that there is no limit that can be set to

4O

the claims. One photograph which I have seen purports to
be of a Runner “from a gentleman that guaranteed that she laid
339 eggs in 365 days during her first season’s laying.” Most
of her eggs were reported infertile. Perhaps this 1s the real
limit!

Naturally, Mr. Scott, although he raises Buff Orpington
Ducks and Wyandotte hens, regards the Indian Runner as “the
Queen of Layers.” He also says that all the Wyandottes re-
served for breeders in his pens for 1911 have laid over 200 eggs
each. He is a great believer in strain and stamina, and in
bringing birds to maturity before permitting them to begin
laying. In connection with the chapter on feeding, I give his
method and kinds of feed used. And, if any one is getting too
enthusiastic over Runners, I will try to balance him a bit by
referring him to Mr.. Rigg, who says that the Runner’s laying
capacity has been overrated.

Doubtless, the majority of people are unaware that our
veteran, Mr. I. K. Felch, furnished a sworn record, some years |
ago, of a Light Brahma hen having laid 313 eggs in one year.
I am certain that the average Indian Runner duck will come
nearer her “Wonder” average than will any breed of hens to the
“wonder” record for hens. I know of one published record for
an American hen, higher than this duck record, but it was not
a sworn record, as far as I know.

Straight to the point testimony from the people who are in
the midst of the work, and who have to meet difficulties at
every turn is one of the most valuable things we can have to
give light on mooted points. Extracts from some other of the
letters which came to me during 1910 will show further how

people regard the two types. The Vice-President of one of the
poultry clubs writes: “Give the public what it wants and what

is right, but do not try to educate it up to take only what we
have to offer, because it is a fad. People want something that
will reproduce itself, and the light fawn color won’t do it.”
From the far west, a man of convictions writes: ‘“Throw-
ing out the penciled type is an injustice to all its breeders as

Al

well as to the true breed; it is tearing down what we have been
building up for years. Our own ducks have won over all kinds
of so-called Indian Runners, scoring to ninety-six and a half and
ninety-six and three fourths at state shows. We have been
breeding this English type for eight years, and find no fault in
them, while the fawn and white proved worthless under the
same conditions. Why should the Revision Committee wipe
either the English type or the American type off the face of the
American soil?” Please note that this letter was neither written
for publication, nor for advertising, but is the outspoken ex-
pression of a man’s belief, which he supports by his practice.
He says, also, in the course of his letter, that the American
type “has neither carriage nor egg-laying qualities.”

If. any are prompted to deny this last statement I refer them
to an excerpt from a letter written from one of those Missouri
men who never believe anything unless you can show them. He
says: “I have some mongrels, this year’s hatch, from stock
claimed to score 96, and some have neither marking nor type.
They are white and fawn, but color not distributed as it should
be, and carriage little more erect than my Rouens. Have a ;
neighbor who has had no better luck. The eggs were green.”

The only man I happen to know of who has bred the Indian
Runners continuously for more than a dozen years, Mr. Fay
Davis, Michigan, said in 1910! “It 1s a Sorry fact) tome 167s
the Standard makers try to spoil one of the utility points of the
breed. I discarded, years ago, all my green egg type; now to
go backward is a bitter pill to take.”

Publicly, Mr. Davis has said, after long experience: ‘‘I be-
lieve that every duck that lays a large, pure white egg shows,
at certain seasons of the year, a certain amount of penciling,
which is very marked when the feathers are new, and becomes
fainter when the feathers grow older. In my estimation, this

penciling adds to the beauty of the plumage.”

42

Mr. Davis also states that he has spent twelve years in
selection of ducks that lay pure white eggs, and having right
cheek markings and correct shape, and refers to “the cinnamon-
colored (the new ‘fawn!’) ducks that lay the dark eggs and that
are incorrect in shape.’ In 1gro, I think, on buying a pair of
cinnamon-colored, light fawn, Standard ducks, he got the small,
dark eggs again. Surely, this man’s testimony ought to count
very strongly. I have been able to get the names of only two
other breeders who were handling Indian Runners in America
at the time when he took them up. The testimony of a man
who has held to them all through their trial in this country, is the
best testimony that we can get. Mr. Davis adds that he has
no trouble in selling all that himself and his customers can raise
of the English, white-egg stock, and that he knows of no other
fowl that can compare with them in profit. The knowledge of
the man who has known both types since their beginnings with
us, is the knowledge which ought to save us from making future
mistakes.

Since the first edition of this book was put out, there has
been a decided change of attitude toward the English type on
the part of the breeders and judges in general. Miller Purvis,
T. F. McGrew, one or two A. P. A. judges, and others as
notable, have publicly favored the recognition of the English-bred
duck as a separate variety, and it may be only a question of a
few months before these penciled ducks will be freely admitted
to the shows on their merits and judged by the English Stand-
ard. It remains, then, for it to be generously admitted that
the English type was the progenitor of the other, and therefore
deserves first place.

Many of the breeders of the rank and file, however, have
tried hard to make it appear that the carnest effort of the fan-
ciers of the English-bred type to protect themselves from busi-
ness extinction was intended as an effort to drive American
Standard birds out of existence, and their breeders “off the earth.”
No greater misconception could possibly be entertained. The

43

whole prestige of the fancy was brought to bear against the
penciled ducks, until no visitor at a show would cast a glance
at them. It was only the belief of their breeders that they
were decidedly superior to the American Standard type in actual
intrinsic value that kept the breeders of the English type from
throwing up the game. <A few dollars and a year’s work might
easily place any one of them on the popular side, at half the
cost in wear and tear of holding to the English type. Yet they
did hold to it, tenaciously.

The matter of color is still a bone of contention. The
English duck was described as “fawn” in color before there
were any American Standard birds of the present color in
existence.

The matter of the name belonging especially to the first in
the field, namely, the English type of Runner, is so plainly one
of common-sense and fair dealing that I think no one can can-
didly consider it without admitting the justice of the claims of
the English type. But this does not seem to me now to be of
very great importance. The mix-up on the word “fawn” is so
hopeless that I think the only hope of straightening it may be
to throw aside the adjective “Indian” entirely, and call one
variety the American Runner, the other the “Penciled Runner,”
while the third sort comes in simply as the White Runner.
From my correspondence with those who would really like to
see the matter settled with justice to both, I think this way out
would suit the majority. There is room enough for both
varieties, surely. An occasional breeder here now keeps ali
three varieties.

The Standard of the 1910 Revision has been so thoroughly
discredited at many points that it must be very difficult, I think,
for the next few years, to work up much loyalty to it. In the
Indian Runner ranks, no one seems to be satisfied.

The way the color question was working out before the
last revision was shown very clearly in an exhibit at the Syracuse,

44

N. Y. Fair, the year of the last revision. The Standard then
called for “light fawn’. Criticisms without number were made
on the rating of a certain bird, practically white, which, because
of superior type, was given the blue. During the same Fair,
in 1911, I stood before the Runner coops, and saw a beautiful
bird, as far as type went, with no prize. The bird was almost
white. I asked a man who was demonstrating Runners, (evi-
dently the leader in the winnings) why this bird was neglected,
when at another time a bird of the same sort received first under
the same judge. My supposed ignorance was not much en-
lightened, for the smiling reply was: “Oh! that was a mistake.”
Later, I was told that it was this same bird that won the blue
the previous year.

As the initiated know, it was the loss of the word “light”
from the Standard description that made the difference. Yet
the columns of the poultry periodicals are still dotted with ad-
vertisements describing the birds of rabid fighters for the Ameri-
can Standard bird, which advertisements claim the owners to have
the acme of the American. Standard type; yet, they are described
as “light fawn throughout.” And the Standard calls for “light
fawn” in tail of duck only! One breeder has declared in print
that the American Indian Runner Standard is a joke, and that
the bird it demands has never been bred and cannot be bred.

In the matter of color of the birds and color of the eggs,
it seems to me that some have subverted honest straightforward-
ness to supposed business demands. I urged, last year, that
those who were breeding to the English Standard say so clearly,
so that none should be led into buying that which they might
not want. Many of those raising the penciled duck have done
this, I am glad to see. )

But Y—, a recent writer, a breeder of the American Standard
type, supposed to be giving valuable information to the public,
says: “There are two varieties of Indian Runner Ducks. One
is the English Standard, a penciled variety, commonly known

45

as the brown and white; the other is the light (!) fawn and
white, our own American Standard bird. The penciled ducks
cannot compete with the American Standard fawn and white
because they are disqualified on account of the penciling. The
country is flooded with these inferior ducks, now being advertised

9?

as the ‘true fawn and white.’ This. writer further speaks of
them as “a non-standard bird, many of which lay green or blue
| eggs, for which there is no demand.” |

This is amazing, coming from a breeder who has always
had the green-egg birds till this year, who has suddenly acquired
the only strain of white-egg Runners in the country (!) and
who has attained them by changing males in every yard every
year (so says advertising). A breeder, too, whose birds are
all of the new Standard light fawn and white stock and layers of
snow-white eggs.

The new Standard does not call for hght fawn and white,
and it does not disqualify the penciled birds. In brief, no writ-
ing of equal length has contained so many actual mis-statements
apparently for business’s sake. The English birds are not com-
monly known as “brown and white,’ and those which I know
do not lay green eggs. ‘“There is no difference between the two ;
varieties except in color, so far as their laying qualities are con-
cerned,” is a previous inconsistent statement of the above writer.

The American Standard disqualifications refer to the dark
breast known as “claret” and to the blue bars on wing, which
are generally taken as showing foreign blood; beyond this,
absence of feathers in the wings or twists in wings, back or tail,
complete the list of special disqualifications, and I find nothing
in the general disqualifications which applies to Indian Runners.

The American Standard everywhere stands firmly for shape
as making the breed. For instance, under Plymouth Rocks, it
says: ‘The six varieties are identical, except in color.” When
it comes to the Indian Runner, the Standard allows 25 points
out of one hundred for color, and 41 for shape. Yet, with

46

only 25 points on color, and 61 for shape and carriage, how is
it that the light-fawn-and-white contingent, who testify that they
haven't even the color called for by the American Standard, are
spending their whole strength and falsifying facts to make out
that the English-bred duck is so “inferior?” This, too, when
their self-elected spokesman says they “differ only in color.”

If the American public does find itself misled by the words
“true fawn and white,” it will be because it has been purposely
tangled up by such writers as the above. There must be more
than one shade of fawn: because the American Standard calls
for darker fawn in head of drake than in other parts. Fawn
color is a light, yellowish brown; so says Webster. And if the
Standard has no specific definition, it must accept the usual
meaning of a word. Therefore, the English duck known as a
“fawn” duck long before the American Standard style was im
existence, has double claim to use the word “fawn,” if its breed-
ers so desire.

But, despite this, I would personally prefer to have the
word “penciled” come into general use, simply because no one
can then make a mistake.

A little worse, a little more unfair than the above is a state-
ment from another breeder of American Standard Runners which
appeared in print late in 1911. A confiding old gentleman, an
editor, recently become interested in Runners, asked about the
green eggs. The breeder replied: ‘“There may be a man who
has one or two that will lay white eggs, but they will not do
that all the season.” This man has known Runners many years,
and he could not possibly have failed to know that he was
giving an impression fully equivalent to a lie, and deceiving his
old friend with others! And noone need take my word for
it, because this same breeder, in another publication, at another
time said, speaking of the two types: “They all lay a tinted egg
once in a while. Contrast this with his “There may be a man
who has one or two that lay white eggs,’ and you see the quality
of the man.

47

Never mind about the Runner! She can prove her own
value. But the deceived old gentleman says, in his paper: “I
think friend X (we will call him) has given us pretty near the
truth in the matter.’ N. B.—The old gentleman has friend
X’s strain of birds, which lay “green or bluish-green” eggs, he |
says. And ALL of Y’s are advertised to lay snow-white eggs!
Both, kindly remember, have the “true” American Standard
kind, and nothing else! |

As a corollary and sufficient comment on the fairness of
the whole matter, I may refer to a letter received about a month
before this writing, from a county secretary. The letter states
that the judge and other members of the A. P. A. at the show
in this county, made it their especial business to tell every one
they could reach that the Penciled Runners were worthless, that
no one was breeding them, and that they could not be sold if
raised. As every breeder of the penciled type whom I happen
to know well has had far more orders both for eggs and for
stock, than could be filled, these things look very much like false
utterances induced by prejudice or else lack of knowledge; pos-
sibly by both.

Those breeders of the American type who, apparently, were
not willing to give the English ducks any chance, have persistently
denied the purity of the penciled type, although the great British
show, the Crystal Palace, was giving them the leading prizes
year after year, and the most prominent English breeders as-
serted their superiority as a distinctive and pure type. They
have denied its right to the original color, and have charged it
with being a green-egg type. One man states that he does not
know whether the tinted-egg layers are better than the others or
not, because he has ducks that lay tinted eggs early in the sea-
son and mostly white eggs later on. This man has bred ducks
many years, and any one who has bred them but a season or
two knows that ducks, at the beginning of the lay, often give
eggs covered with a coating which does not belong to the shell,

48

and which washes off! I have, indeed, known a duck which
had laid strictly white eggs for an entire season, to lay blue eggs
five or six days in succession, once during the next season.
But this does not stamp her as anything but a white-egg duck,
for there was evidently something temporarily wrong, either with
her digestive or her laying functions, and she was, normally,
strictly a white-egg bird. A simple coating which can be re-
moved is quite different from a shell filled with green coloring

matter.

49

The Indian Runners .
Making History in 1910

CHAPTIR V.

Nearly every mail throughout the year brings inquiries as
to the various types of Indian Runner, or recitals of experience
with the breed in one type or the other. As to the birds them-
selves, I have little difficulty in replying to questions. As to
origin, history, etc., the people who have the facts have varied
in their willingness to let the public have them—at least through
this medium; and it has had them through no other medium
thus far. The public wants these facts and it wants them badly.

Several of the earlier breeders gave me all the help I asked.
For this they have my hearty thanks, and I know that they will
have that of the public which is interested in Indian Runners, as
well. Others ignored my request, or answered far afield. To
one breeder, I wrote thus: ‘Davis, of Michigan, tells me that
you were one of the original breeders of Indian Runners. I
want to find out just when they came into the United States
and who imported them. Do you know who was the first, and
whether or not the birds came from England? Also, how long
ago? I see McGrew says little is known about them. I know

50

what English breeders say, but it seems to me that it ought to
be possible to find out where United States breeders got them,
and when the first were imported. It has been given out here
that they came from the West Indies, which I do not at all be-
lieve, unless the two types which we are breeding at present in
this country had a different origin entirely. Reply would very
greatly assist,” etc. All but one of these questions was ignored
in the answer.

I had two ideas in mind in speaking of origin. The West
Indian story, which I have refuted elsewhere, had gone all over
the United States, and, having been credited to a reputable
writer, who was a breeder of the Indian Runners before most
of us had heard of them, it was quite generally accepted as fact;
especially by those who did not know much about the duck in
England, and what the best English breeders had to say about
it. Moreover, England and the West Indies have had many
dealings, throughout many years, and it was not an incredible
story, in the light of possibilities, that our Indian Runners should
have come to us, in part, at least, through the West Indies.

Aside from this, there was the possibility of different origins
of different strains. Last winter, at the New York show, a man
prominent in affecting the fate of Indian Runners in this coun-
try by his public acts, said, in my hearing, that it would be very
easy indeed to reproduce the Indian Runners by the use of two
or three of our earlier breeds,—at least as far as the solid fawn
marking, on white was concerned. All breeders of fancy fowls
know, after they have a little experience with breeding and ex-
hibiting, that no man dare say what blood is in any one strain
of birds of any breed, when it has been long out of the origin-
ator’s hands. That “foreign” blood has been put into the Indian
Runner of some strains, no breeder of experience and observa-
tion can fail to see. Indeed, it is usually admitted, in a general
way, although no one confesses to having introduced such blood.
When a bird which, in its purity, should stand very erect, de-

51

generates into a logy, heavy bird which it is very difficult to breed
out of the horizontal carriage, there is a reason—with apologies
to the owners (?) of this clause! And every experienced
breeder knows in a general way what that reason is. When a
bird that is, in its purity, rather definitely and strongly marked
with a dark color, throws a large number of white specimens,
as many complainants affirm that the “fawn” Indian Runners
do, there is white blood back of it somewhere. White will not
prevail so widely in the face of man’s continual selection of the
other sort, unless man has made the mistake of adding more
white, and so has strengthened it.

The fancier would not be unduly dependent on the Stand-
ard, if he could depend on it not to change just as he got some-
where near its demands. And, when the Association makes a
mistake it is almost in honor bound to stand by it, or to recede
from the point gradually, for the sake of those who have done
its bidding, and bred to the false ideal. Nor can it afford, from
one point of view, to admit that it has made a mistake, although
many of its members will admit this personally. But the farmer
must take what the fancter hands down to him, if he wants
anything new in the way of a breed, and while the Association
helps him on one hand, it injures him on the other.

On the day before I write this chapter, a letter came in the
morning mail, from one of a firm of farmers who evidently want
to grow up into fanciers, but can by no means afford to ignore
the utility side of breeding. The letter said: “I have some good
Indian Runners, and want to keep only the best. However, my
best ducks I cannot take to the Fairs, as they are too dark. Yet,
they produce the eggs we prefer,—the white ones.”

On the day previous to the receipt of the above mentioned
letter, I received another, inquiring about the white-egg sort,
and saying: “I have some of the green-egg kind, but am not
satisfied with the color of the eggs.” A large breeder wrote me,
the same week: “An inquirer, an M. D., writes to know if I

52

cu
i

Se

Trio — Motion Carriage’’

‘“Queenmate’’

‘“Queen’s Delight”’

‘“Penguina”’
(penciled)

‘“Queen’s Beauty”’
(in foreground)

will sell ducks guaranteed to lay white eggs or money refunded;
that he would not have layers of green eggs at any price, nor as
a gift; that he would hardly eat them if well-cooked.” Of
course, this is largely a matter of personal whim, as far as not
eating a green-shelled egg is concerned. But we need to re-
member that the great bulk of the Indian Runner eggs must
shortly be sold to the public at large, few of whom lack personal
whims, of one sort or another. It is our business to humor
those whims just as far as we may. And we know that the
people of much of our country have been taught to demand white
eggs; whether it be a whim, or not, does not affect the fact with
regard to the call for white eggs.

A Texas rancher who thought to take Fortune by the top-
knot, as it were, and haul her into his service, wrote as follows:
“The penciled ducks are better than I thought. I thought I
- would order several pens from different parties and stock up
on the best. My only wish is that I had bought all penciled
Runners.” The ducks had converted the rancher to the penciled
type, before they had time to lay an egg for him. The solid
fawn is so handsome, in the best specimens, that I should hardly
expect such sudden conversion, but I have the buyer’s own testi-
mony, in writing, as to the fact.

One or two letters which I have in hand are so bitter in
expressing an opinion about the matter of change of type that
I do not think it wise to publish them, even without signatures.
One breeder, in especial, stated with hot comment, that he would
hold to the genuine type, even if they should be disqualified by
the American Committee, in the revision of the Standard.

One letter, from an inquirer not at all familiar with the
Indian Runner, asks many questions. Among others, “Are they
hardy?” The descriptive adjective “hardy” usually appears in
any recital of the virtues of these ducks, but no one has enlarged
upon it, to my knowledge. When people ask such a question
as this, I immediately wonder what they mean by “hardy.” Able

53

to withstand snow? Cutting winds? Dampness? Extreme
cold? What is “extreme”? We have the light winters of the
south, and the 40-degrees-below-zero of the northwest. Which
of these is the fair test? Or is it a point in between? I can
testify to the limit of six below zero. I have seen Indian
Runners, just maturing, running in the open, in December’s
bitter days, with not a bit of shelter but some small coops, which
they ignored. The yards were strongly wind-swept, and the
birds were out all night as well as all day. They sat on their
feet, and hid their heads in their ruffs, when it was coldest, and
especially during cutting winds. No one with any experience
with fowls would expect eggs under such conditions, of course.
But the ducks were doing well enough otherwise, and happy
as larks, even on the snow, as soon as it began to thaw. I
judge them to be hardier in some respects than any breed of
hens I have had experience with—and that is a great many.
“They do not require any shelter after they are grown,” is the
testimony of another breeder. Nevertheless, all who expect to
get eggs at the north in the colder months must provide shelter,
and see that the birds do not stay much in cutting wind. Too
close shelter is not desirable, especially for breeding stock.

All poultry yards, whether for hens or other birds, should
have shelter on the sides toward the prevailing winds; this is
only common-sense. Hedging, shrubbery, low-branching trees—
any of these may afford the shelter needed. JI think there is
no doubt that the Runners would prefer a shelter consisting only
of a roof, with thickly-branched shrubs for one or two sides;
for they are very suspicious, and are much wilder when enclosed
than when free to go about. Whether this would be warm
enough to permit laying, I am not sure; think it doubtful, at
least in the three worst months. The breeders who report that
their birds lay “remarkably well’ during the winter probably
do not house them on the hither side of an iceberg; though even
that would be more comfortable, it may be, than an open sweep

54

of cutting winds. Think a minute! Even inside your dwell-
ings, unless very warmly built, a keen gale will make forty
degrees difference next to the windward sides. How much
more bitter will it be outside!

I see that one enthusiast says that hotels and restaurants
will not use any other sort of eggs if they can get Indian Runner
duck eggs. There is good sense behind the statement—regard-
ing it rather as a prophecy—because these are the places that
must often consider quantity; and in any table portion where
eggs enter in as quantity, and not as eggs in natural form, two
duck eggs will always take the place of three hens’ eggs, so that
these caterers need but pay for eight, instead of a dozen, to do
the same work.

As to the horde of bakers who are said to have been using
rotten eggs lately, the Indian Runner breeder looks for no cus-
tom from them. He will prefer to stick to the hotels and res-
taurants which “will not use any other kind” but big, sweet
Indian Runner eggs.

Messrs. M. and S., Indian Runner breeders of the middle-
west, both of whom have kept both types of Indian Runner,
testify to their experiences on the same page of a 1910 number
of one of our poultry papers. Mr. S. states that he can find no
difference in the laying quality of the two types, but refers to
the tendency of the laced birds toward a dark head and rump,
as a defect. But, this is exactly what the Standard they are
bred to (the English) demands them to have!

Mr. M., on the contrary, says that the laced birds are superior
to the solid fawn sort in hardiness, and in the “production of
more and larger white-shelled eggs.” He also says that when
the Indian Runner comes to be bred for market eggs mainly,
“you must have a supply of large, white eggs to please the trade
and obtain the highest price.” Ten times its weight within the
year, is what he avers that a laced duck of this breed, properly
handled, will produce. He bases his preference fundamentally

55

on the fact that the laced birds are the stronger birds and the
better layers. |

Mr. 8. again, finds the solid colored birds easier to breed to
Standard requirements, and thinks this is a virtue; while Mr.
M. reiterates that it is the largest amount of white-shelled eggs
that the people want, and thus stands for the English-bred pen-
ciled birds. These, he breeds largely, and sells at good prices.

If I have not, on the other pages of this book, made it
sufficiently clear that I have no wish to coerce the fancier who
likes the fawn and white birds into raising anything else, I want
to do sonow. But, I have seen his birds where he shows his —
best. I know them to have been inferior to the original type
in several respects, because he has too far ignored true type,
in a craze for a certain color. In doing this, as all know, he
breaks, like many other breeders, a fundamental rule of the law-
giving Association. But what of that? Is he not a fancier,
and may he not do as he fancies?

Neither, for any cause, would I put a handsome bird out
of existence; but I certainly would oppose her shoving aside
the real claimant to honors; especially when it means that many
a farmer, caught by the name and the fame of the “Indian Run-
ner’ will be deluded into buying the green-egg “solid fawn”
type, only to “tear his hair” when these birds begin to lay.

I first took this breed up to test it for the benefit of the
thousands of readers of a prominent farm paper. I found it
better than I expected, and I found many more people interested
than I had looked to see. It is because of these people, and
many others like them, who will in the future want to know
as much as possible about the Indian Runners, that I have ven-
tured to differ from that great and wise body, the American
Poultry Association, and many of the good fanciers who com- .
pose it and to make that difference public, so that well-informed

buyers may know what they are doing.

56

The Indian Runners
Making History in 1911

CHAPTER VI

Early in 1911, a breeder of the Penciled ducks wrote:
Blank is advertising “eggs from the only white-egg strain of the
fawn and white (American Standard) Runners in existence.
You see, he saw ‘the handwriting on the wall’ and is quick to
make a change.”

The next month, the following came to me from a man
with common-sense and business ability, but who said: “I am
a new hand with Indian Runners. I raised a few ducks last
season, and bought a few of the same strain. About six weeks
ago, an expert on poultry, a member of the Am. P. Ass’n., called
to see my ducks. He wanted 100 eggs, but not with my dark-
headed drakes. Well, I knew nothing about ducks, and I almost
broke the hame-strap finding two drakes of the ‘light fawn and
white’ for one pen. They have blue head and tail markings!
Had I read your book before this ‘expert’ was here, I certainly
would have given him the laugh! I will warm him up when I
see him! I consider your book better than good. I am get-
ting 20 to 23 eggs a day from 24 ducks. All are white eggs

5F

save one. I have spoken for eggs from Eastern breeders of
the ‘light fawn and white,’ said to be pure white-egg strain. If
they hatch and I should raise some green-egg layers, I will raise
a howl! I tried hard to find stock of the ‘light fawn and
white’ (I aim to keep both strains so I can please all, but the
eggs must be white), but as yet no one guarantees straight white
eggs, and I would not pay express charges on a duck that would
lay green eggs. I think we Americans go to seed on color,
especially that word ‘fawn.’ There isn’t one person in a hun-
dred that knows just what fawn is. I call it ‘buckskin’; and
the penciled ducks “buckskin brindle.’ ”

On this same matter of color, Mr. Walton writes me, the
week this chapter is being written: “Seems to me the judges
must be far from even the American Standard, if, as some cor-
respondents say, a penciled bird of superior type is put down
behind a plain feathered one, however poor in shape and car-
riage the latter may be. How does this come, when your Stand-
ard gives two-thirds its points to carriage and type? One thing
to be guarded against is the danger of faddist judges and breed-
ers going for penciling, marks, OR ANY OTHER TRIVIAL
POINT, and riding it to death.”

Touching the matter of white eggs, one breeder was quite
indignant because I wrote him asking in especial if his birds all
laid white eggs. “I have not got a Runner on the place that
lays any color but a pure white egg,” he writes. “I shipped eggs
last season to every state in the Union; also Canada, Cuba, Porto
Rico, Hawaiian Isles and Mexico, and every Runner egg I sold
was a pure white egg. J am one of the loudest enemies of the
new Standard Fawn, green-egg strain, that ever existed. Shape
makes the breed, and my idea is that white eggs should be one
of the requirements of a good Runner.”

Another who bought foundation penciled stock direct from
England says: “Have bred in line since, and consider that I
have a distinct strain. They breed remarkably true. No slate-

58

colored specimens in this strain, and no green eggs. Every egg
pure white and lots of them.”

Another says: “My stock is true to name, and they have
laid nothing but large pure white eggs.”

I place this testimony as evidence, against the guesses—or
worse—of those who say there are no strictly white-egg Run-
ners.

_ One or two letters may show the difficulties prone to arise
when either breeders or buyers fail to state distinctly what they
sell or what they may wish to buy. One correspondent writes:
“T had my troubles with the green-egg runts and it cost me dear,
but I found out in time to save 20 old ducks that were the right
kind, and got stock from Canada and got on my feet again. The
breeder I got my stock from is winning in Canada and mine
are winning in my yards! That ideal egg farm that many people
dream about will be realized sooner through the English white-
egg strain of Runner ducks than in any other kind of poultry.
I have a good farm here, but an old shack of a house, and poor
buildings, and got in debt the first two years; but the ducks are
helping me get out of debt and keep square. When I get the
buildings and shelter belts I think I can get all the rest with
my ducks. The only way I will ever put new blood into my
flock is to hatch the white egg myself!”

The following shows even more clearly the chain of com-
munity of interests that may lead to misinformation and loss;
also, the need of exact statements. This letter was received at
mid-summer, 1911: “I have a flock from an imported strain
that lay a large, pure white egg. A few weeks ago, I ordered
a sitting of eggs from X, who advertises in the Southern——
The eggs came; two-thirds of them were small, dark green eggs.
I could not set them and mix them with my flock of pure-bred
ducks. I wrote to Mr. X, explaining why I did not want the
eggs. He wrote back that I need not expect him to take the
eggs back. Then I wrote him that I would let the Southern

59

decide whether I was mistaken about the pure Indian Runner
laying a pure white egg.” The breeder wrote back that the
editor was his personal friend and the customer might write
as much as he pleased. The editor wrote the customer that duck
eggs were “apt to be most any color.” The buyer continued,
in the letter I quote: “If the farm papers are going to uphold
advertisers like this, how are the uninformed farmers to know
whether they are getting purebred stock, or not? ‘This is a
matter that ought to be righted. If Mr. (the editor) is not
familiar with the Indian Runner, why doesn’t he inform him-.
self ?” |

I wrote the inquiring customer, who believed he had a clear
case, something like this: “I fear that, as your original order
did not mention that you required white eggs, both law and
justice are on the side of the seller, exasperating as the matter
is to you. For, simply because the American Standard requires
the solid fawn (and white) Runners, they are fairly supposed
by fanciers to be THE Runners, unless the contrary is indicated
in the buyer’s letter. From the American Standard point of
view, its kind of Runners are the ‘true’ Runners. You can
now see why, in the book, I objected to the use of this word
‘true’ as likely to be confusing.” }

Nothing could give a clearer illustration from life at the
point I am making, that a “gold brick” is being handed to farm-
ers who order Indian Runners without knowing the facts, or
even without specifying most clearly just what they are ordering,
when they do know. They must say, if this is what they want,
that they require the white-egg, penciled duck, bred to the Eng-
lish Standard. All three of these points are now necessary,
because the fanciers in general, seeing plainly now that the
white egg must come, have begun to select from their flocks the
birds which lay white eggs, and are advertising to meet the de-
mand, “White-egg strains.” It takes years upon years to build
up a strain certain to breed true, and no one knows what green-

‘60

—Full Waltons from Imported Stock

(Artist spoiled this cut, leaving shadows on right hand birds, and thickening
neck of one on left.)

A ‘‘Walton’’ Pair Female in Foreground

wt
Ny

iyi
4

egg ancestry, near or remote, these ducks of theirs may have
had. Mr. Walton states that the Walton strain of Indian Run-
ners never laid anything but white eggs.

An old breeder of American Standard ducks affirms that
“by proper selection” breeders can soon have them all laying
white eggs. In time, possibly this will be the outcome. But
what really happens, ow, is this: Customers who make requisi-
tion for white eggs from such breeders, may get them, and
farmers who are not informed and who do not ask for white
eggs get the green eggs that are culled out. This is but human
nature, and would be considered strictly fair by most breeders,
for the reason that the Standard says nothing about the color
of the eggs. If the customer also is silent on this point, the
inference is that he does not care. Once more, then: From
the American Standard point of view, the plain fawn ducks, with |
white markings are strictly purebred; from the English Stand-
ard point of view, they are another variety, and, the English
have the prior claim by at least fifty years.

Not all imported English ducks lay white eggs. . But any |
one who has a strain that lays large, white eggs and plenty of
them, and keeps it up year after year, is all right for market
eggs, no matter what they are called.

The one thing that comes most clearly out of this mix-up
is that we have two distinct varieties of Runners. The ijustice
lies in the newer sort trying to substitute itself for the prior
claimant, instead of coming in as an additional variety. The
Indian Runner is a penciled bird; the American Runner is plain,
because the American Standard demands it to be so.

A breeder who says that he has tried both parti-colored
varieties, and would prefer the American Standard ducks if
they were as good egg producers as the penciled, gives his ex-
perience in very vivid language, almost extravagant. I do not
know him personally, and I have found no one who does, but
he has all the prestige of the American Poultry Association

61

behind him, since he is a licensed judge, and no judge can be
licensed without other good judges to vouch for his work and
his integrity, if my memory is correct with regard to A. P. A.
law. He says the ducks of the English penciled type are “the
greatest layers of the age.” He admits that there are a few
strains of the American Standard birds that are “really great
layers,” but says, in general, that fanciers have given their
strength to getting color till many strains are “worthless” for
egg production. |

Mr. T. F. McGrew, whose judgment is considered so good
that his name has been mentioned widely and favorably for
the Presidency of the American Poultry Association, after Mr.
Hicks gets tired of it, said this, under date of October 4, 1911,
in a private letter to me: “The proper solution of the problem
would be to have two varieties and not to try to push out the
fawn and white with the other variety. I am ata loss to under-
stand why it is that people who are interested in Indian Runner
Ducks cannot see that the laced (or penciled, as you prefer)
should be classed as a separate variety of Indian Runner Ducks.”

Inasmuch as this is but the attitude of working common-
sense, I am indeed glad to have such a deliverance from a man
standing so high as Mr. McGrew, on this question. But I trust
that Mr. McGrew and all others will remember that it was the
sustained and determined effort to discredit the Penciled variety
utterly in this country which set its advocates upon the up-hill
work of saving it to the United States farmers.

Mr. Walton says that, leaving color entirely out of the
question, either as to eggs or the feathers, “the most erect, quick-
running type of Indian Runner is the best foraging and laying
duck in existence.” The level-bodied varieties, he states, “can’t
touch it; but, it does not lay 240 eggs in 240 days, nor does it
usually lay 320 in a year, and what is more, it doesn’t tell lies,
and it doesn’t ask any one to tell them for it.” He has tried
the strains making the greatest claims, in England; and, as

62

Secretary of the Indian Runner Duck Club, he has unusual op-
portunities to know the best that is in existence, and to get it
if it is any better than what he previously had. He stated
positively early in 1911, “The penciled-fawn-with-white, white-
egg-laying Indian Runner is the purest blood you can get at
present, and there is a greater demand than supply.”

63

The Worst About the

Indian Runner

CHAPTER VII

If we are to tell the best about a breed, it is only fair de-
fense of those who cannot exercise sound judgment as to their
own chances, to tell the worst, also. Let us plunge in, therefore,
and have the worst over! |

“The Worst’, please note, falls under two heads: that
brought out by experience, and that brought forth by guesses,
or on general principles, or in fear that this natty little duck
is going to hurt the sales of hens, or even in order to attract
attention and rush in where the experienced “angels” fear to
tread.

I think every reader will see, instantly, that it is unlikely
that any person in the country has scanned with a keener eye
every line about the Indian Runner during the last year, than
the author of this book, myself. The word “Indian Runner”
looks to me to be written in raised type, so quickly does it catch
my eye. Doubtless, I have not seen all; but I have all the im-
portant poultry publications and many of the lesser ones, and in-
terested readers all over the country write, calling attention to

notable articles or items.

-

64

In my own correspondence,.one person wrote as follows,
speaking of “enthusiastic” correspondents: “I know -the breed.
Ours is a land of liars. No sooner does a man tell a good story
than his neighbor considers it a duty to go him one (I should
rather say three) better. Just now, Runners are on the run,
and Leghorns are getting a rest. My 21 produced eleven eggs
yesterday (a banner day); to-day, three. Be amiable in spite
of this. You see, I love them in spite of all.” This was writ-
ten in March. Also in March, he said: “I think the Indian
Runner an over-estimated bird. From 23 ducks, I am getting
only eight eggs a day.”’ Later, this correspondent was himself
enthusiastic about the Runners.

Recently, a Runner breeder wrote to this effect: “Did you
see how Rigg is hammering Indian Runners? What’s he but-
ting in for?’ Mr. Rigg is a dignified, experienced journalist
and poultry writer, whose honesty of intent no one questions.
If he has raised Runners, I don’t think the public knows it. But
this is what he said, when asked to explain what he meant by
his “warning in regard to the Indian Runner Duck boom”’:

“The Indian Runner Duck boom has taken on large propor-
tions, and many people have been led to believe that this duck
is more profitable to the egg farm than any breed or variety of
fowls. We wanted to warn our friends that the merits of this
duck as an egg-producer have been over-stated. It is a very
prolific egg-producer, to be sure. But there is not the market |
for duck eggs that there is for eggs of fowls.” He goes on to
say that duck raising requires a special location, while “most any
piece of good land” is suitable for fowls, and that the good
duck location “is an exceptional one.” Mr. Riggs then repeats:
“Again we advise our friends to be careful how they go into
this new breed.”

As to “over-statement,’ I wonder if Mr. Riggs knows of
a single breed of hens whose merits as egg-producers have not
been over-stated! Probably no such breed or variety exists.

65

As to “most any good land” being suitable for fowls, Mr. Rigg
most certainly does not score there, for the very specialness
about the duck location is that it doesn’t need good land; the
waste places being especially suited to it. I saw, in a dinky
little stream in New York state,—a stream with a dozen turns

to every two or three rods, and widely-

and twists, possibly,
bordered by swale, a flock of fifty most beautiful Runners: the
thriftiest, happiest lot of birds one could ask to-see. As to
productiveness, these were not yet of laying age; but their im-
mediate ancestors, a small lot, had laid 100 per cent for the
flock, 83 times—that is on 83 different days—in less than eight
months. If my friend, Mr. Rigg thinks this is exaggeration,
I can give him dates and figures from the daily memorandum.
These were strictly half-Walton birds.

A letter from another doubter—out on the west coast—reads
as follows: “I think Mr. Robinson has hit off the Indian
Runner boom about right in the June F. P. I admire him
for his sane and logical treatment of poultry questions. About
the Runners, perhaps they will be mortgage-lifters, as long
as their eggs can be sold for hatching, but, as market eggs,
I can't see it. What I’d like to find out is the truth of that
assertion about Indian Runner eggs bringing as high as 20 per
‘cent premium over hen eggs for market. They don’t do it
here. Even Mrs. Mellette, with all her booming of their super-
iority over hen eggs, had to acknowledge that the peddler who
buys up eggs in town wouldn’t take her duck eggs. I asked
my grocer, who keeps rather a fancy line of goods and pays
me above quotations for ‘extras’, for my White Leghorn eggs,
about the sale of duck eggs. He said they never took the duck
eggs; there were few who would buy duck eggs. So, there
you are.”

So far as the 20 per cent premium on duck eggs is con-
cerned, I may say that I have personally seen commission receipts
where not only 20 per cent, but 50 per cent above the price for

66

hen eggs was received. But this is not a customary difference.
The peculiarity of the market for duck eggs is explained in the
chapter devoted especially to this part of the question.

The reference of the above correspondent to Mr. Robinson,
brings us logically to speak of his opposition. I think he is the
only one of the poultry editors who has put himself in con-
tinuous and persistent opposition to the Indian Runner. He is
recognized as a man of honesty; also as a man of stubborn
prejudice. But, inasmuch as his own statement in a somewhat
recent article of some length shows that his opposition is directed
to “the Sham Indian Runner,’ we need give him no further
notice. It is the Genuine Indian Runner with which this book
aims to deal.

Just one more instance from the ranks of “the Opposition”
may serve to fortify readers against the enthusiasm of the breed-
ers quoted, or a blind reliance on the words of the present writer.
This is noted from the only unfavorable review on the first edition
of this book which has come to my notice, (the editors being other-
wise uniformly kind in their reviews, and recognizing the value
of having a book on the Indian Runner giving facts straight
from the yards of many breeders.) The one opposing editor
says: “This is another partisan book, professedly written to
boom the Indian Runner Duck. It is unfortunate that all the
information one can obtain about these ducks is furnished by
partisan breeders of them, and probably needs to be taken with
the proverbial grain of salt! That they are great layers is
undoubtedly true [Hope Mr. Rigg saw that!], but that one of
them laid 320 eggs in one year may well be doubted until we
can have some reasonable proof of it other than just a mere
say-so. The Indian Runner is a very small duck. What
little meat there is on them is of excellent quality. Poultry
keepers who cater to the duck-egg trade will probably do well
to take up Indian Runners for egg production, but growers of
duck meat will doubtless continue to breed the Pekin.” In my

67

view, the above contains the following points which might ren-
der it, too, wisely taken “with the proverbial grain of salt’:
item, one error of judgment; item, one mis-statement; item,
one prophecy already discredited by the facts; item, one declara-
tion showing that the book had not been carefully read.

It seems to me that it is an error of judgment to seek to
give the impression that outsiders, be they editors, or what not,
can know better about any breed than its breeders. It is a mis-
statement to say that this book was written “professedly” to
boom the Indian Runner. The prophecy that duck meat grow-
ers would hold to the Pekin is proved false in- one large plant
during 1911, as shown in another chapter. The assumption
that this book carried the idea that 320 eggs a year was easily
possible could not have been made, had the reviewer read the
pages given to discussing this and several other abnormally
high records.

The way people read things seems to make a tremendous
difference in the facts, as far as they are themselves con-
cerned. Those who had the first edition will know that I re-
ferred to all the large records as unproven. I also stated that
we had had Indian Runner Ducks, raised wholly in confinement,
begin to lay “while still just less than four-and-one-half months
old,” adding, “It is not common to them to lay quite so early
as this.’ A beginner who had raised nine from ten hatched
said: “But I cannot agree with you as to your statement of
early laying. Mine were hatched Aug. 13 and 14; have not
laid yet. There is quite a difference between this and four and
one-half months, the claim you make (!)” As I had taken
special pains to say that the late hatched Runners were rather
apt not to lay until seven months old, I felt that this reader had
(not intentionally, of course) mis-represented me.

The keen reader will have noted that the above, which
covers the really damning things which have been said in the
few months just past about the Indian Runner, are all from “the

68

audience.” Not one, so far as ts known, has bred the Runners.

One or two adverse opinions from people who have bred
them—all that I have seen—are, it will be noticed, far less
virulent in their criticism. One correspondent of “Gleanings’’,
the well-known bee magazine, writes: For a person who has
unlimited green feed and range, perhaps they are all right; but
where all feed has to be bought and no clover or alfalfa avail-
able, I do not think them a great money-maker. { have had
them nearly a year, and cannot recommend them to any town
person, or one who has not the above necessities to enable him
to make a good portion of their feed inexpensive.”

Referring to the prejudice against duck eggs, the same
writer says: ‘No matter how groundless it is, it is there, and
the public will have to be educated up to the value of the white
egg of the Indian Runner before there is an unlimited market for
them. Personally, I think them as good as hens’ eggs; but the
average person, in this part of the world, anyway, does not think
so, and I have met this prejudice when disposing of those I had
for sale.”

One other says: “I do not think that ducks will replace
hens to any extent, on our chicken farms. It takes almost twice
as much to keep a duck as it does a hen.” This, let it be noted,
is a general statement, tacked on to a discussion of Runners in
such a way that it appears to include the Runners. As some
ducks weigh four pounds, others more than twice this, and as
there is even more difference among hens, the folly of such a
general statement is apparent. One of the worst points about
the Runners is that the mature males are often troublesome and
somewhat brutal. They must not be allowed where the young
are kept, as they may “scalp” them. Other breeds of fowls,
however, are sometimes as bad in this respect.

The Best About the

Indian Runner

CHAPTER VIII

In this chapter, as in the foregoing, I shall use only material
which has come to light since the first edition was sent to the
publishers. Moreover, it will not be an outsider’s say-so,
but direct from those in the work. I cannot, of course, vouch
for-the accuracy of the statements, any more than I can vouch to
you my own accuracy and truthfulness. You must judge from
- your knowledge of human nature and the probabilities. Most
of these letters have come to me in the regular line of acquaint-
anceship or of business; some of them because I was the author
of the book. I know no reason to doubt any one of them, other
than that it is human to question that which exceeds the normal,
or that which we have believed normal. But there is so much
of this “Best” testimony, and it is so strong, that I can only
defend you from getting over-enthusiastic by urging that you
read “the best” and “the worst”: always at the same sitting!

We might begin with the personal testimony of the editor
of “Gleanings” before referred to. I do not think there is a
man in the United States whose unsupported word would be

7O

taken quicker and by more people than “Brother Root’s”. In
one issue, Mr. Root says: ‘To-day is April 6, and my one
Indian Runner duck I have several times mentioned is still lay-
ing her egg a day, and she has done this now for almost if not
quite 100 days without a break. I have read stories like this,
but I. fear I shall have to confess I never expected to own a
fowl of any sort that could give a big, white egg (or perhaps I
should say, rather, a bluish-green egg) for over three months,
without a skip.’ In the next issue, appearing two weeks later,
Mr. Root. refers to “that Indian Runner duck that laid over 100
eggs without a miss.” The following issue contained a story
of another Indian Runner Duck, the report, supported by a
signed affidavit, stating that one of its writer’s Indian Runners
had laid 98 eggs in 96 days. “Eggs are large and white,” the
report continued.

The editors may as well continue their innings: Miller
Purvis, editor of “Poultry’’—a leader among poultry papers—
said early in IQII, concerning some new Penciled Runners:
“We received the three ducks and the drake March 3. One
duck laid Mar. 12, and the next day two of them laid. Then
ail three of them began to lay regularly, and up to this time,
(25 days after we picked up the first egg) we have got 72 eggs,
lacking three of getting one a day for each duck for 25 days.
Every one of these eggs has been pure white. Tested by cook-
ing, we have been unable to detect any difference between them
and eggs from our hens.’’ He goes on to say: “If they con-
tinue as they have started out, we are inclined to think our egg
ranch will be largely stocked with Indian Runners in the end.”
To which Mr. Root adds: “If his experience and mine are not
the exception, no wonder he is coming to the same conclusion
as myself—that all his chicken business hereafter will be con-
siderably along the line of ducks.” Editor Purvis is located out

in far Idaho, as we of the east regard it.

-

/1

Turnitig now to my privaté corftespondence, the first letter
I pick up says: “All lay white eggs; 49 ducks laid-from Feb.
15 to July 15, 150 days, 5316 eggs} up to Aug. 15, 180 days,
‘6000. Note that this is for a business flock, and that the aver-
age 1s 20 eggs a month for each duck, all through, or’120 each
in six months.” ' This is not high, but it is one-half higher than
the average record for hens im a full year, with six full months
yet to hear from. This report is from California. ©

The next report is virtually the same, viz., 20 eggs a month
from the Middle of Feb: to the middle of July. It continues:
“They are now laying right along (over 50 per cent) and show
signs of moulting. Seven-eighths of the feed I have given
them has been cracked corn. They have had no wet mash.
Since the ice broke up they have had the run of the mill pond
across the road. They have also laid eggs around the farm
which I have not counted, though I often come across one or
more. They have not offered to sit. Their pen is an old cow
shed on north side of barn. About 25 rats also occupy this
pen. (I caught eight once last week.) They may get some
of the eggs before I get up in the morning.” |

A letter which came from the far south says: “I now have
seven ducklings which will be seven weeks old to-morrow. I also
have a lot of Barred Rock chicks which are just three days
younger. This morning, I concluded to weigh some of each,
and compare them. All my ducks weighed more than two
pounds each, two of them tipping the scales at two and one-half
pounds each. My largest chick weighed about three-quarters
of a pound. When I first set my eggs poultrymen advised
against it, on the ground that they would eat me out of house
and home. They do eat more than a chicken, but they can be
raised on bran and chopped alfalfa or oats, with a little meat
thrown in, and this is the cheapest kind of feed. Even if they
ate twice as much as a chicken, they would still be just as profit-
able, for they will grow more than twice as fast as a chicken
during the first ten weeks.” |

NI
iS)

‘It will be noticed that those who-say the ducks eat- more
are speaking of the growing ducks. The last clause, “they will
grow more than twice as fast as a chicken during the first ten
weeks,” explains this. Fowls must eat for growth; rapid growth
must mean good appetites.

The letter continues: ‘You don’t have to talk to convert a
poultryman to the Indian Runner, if he can see them occasionally
and watch them grow.”

The next correspondent has also a word to say about feed
and feeding. He advertised that his ducks laid all winter, and
I wrote to ask about it. He replied: ‘Will say that my ducks
do lay all winter, but of course I feed them good, as nothing
will lay without feed. I feed a soft feed of bran and corn meal
and clover and oyster shells. Yes, they lay a much larger egg
than chickens and the eggs sell for more a dozen. One flock
of 60 have a record of 212 in ten months.”

On the question of feed, another says, incidentally, “my
millman made a mess of feed order, and my ducks, that were
laying some twenty eggs the fifteenth of Jan. (a 36 per cent
yield) went down to zero, and I have just hunted out the cause
and found it and started them again.”

To-day’s mail, (Nov. 12, 1911) brought in an Institute
Worker’s report from a flock which I visited during the sum-
mer, and which was then making, I thought, a very creditable
record, indeed. These were strictly “half-Waltons,” and the
owner was a beginner with Runners, who had bought eggs and
had raised a small flock in 1910, just as any farmer would. The
letter says: “The old ducks are still laying; at just nine months
from beginning, they had averaged 185 eggs per bird. To date,
the record is 196. I can scarcely possess my soul in patience
until they lay the few required to make a 200-egg record*

“T read in the last ‘Reliable,’ the letter continued, “that

*Later, this average was increased to 200 plus with 40 days yet
to make out the year.

73

they make a better record the second year than the first; if so,
they certainly are profitable from the stand-point of egg produc-
tion alone. The young sprouts have begun to lay -a little.”
This report is from the Middle States district, the ducks being
kept on farm, free-range conditions. It is on this class of re-
ports that I rely most to give us an idea of what “the Leghorn
duck” will do with good handling under conditions available
to every farmer, with watered land and without. These par-
ticular ducks had a stream to which to resort at will daily.

You will be glad to learn, I think, that Mother L. (the wife’s
elderly but high-spirited mother) takes practically all the care
of these birds. They had no special extra care in the winter.
No green stuff was available till May, and no meat till early
April. Mash of bran and middlings, with corn and buckwheat
for grain, completed this simplest of rations. But I will whisper
to you that the lady in charge is a liberal feeder. I am sure her
interest and care make at least a part of the reason for good
returns.

And as to the record,—if you could see, as I did, the little
thin book with its daily “number laid,” such as you may see on
any farm, you would know it was all straight. As for myself,
I would sooner distrust my own record, or that of any one of
the Experiment Stations!

Another farmer, in the same state, writes: “One of the
April ducks laid when eight days less than five months old, and
an Embden yearling goose laid 18 eggs this fall; and they were
not fed ‘ay, or bust,’ either.”

My own birds have been doing better than I should have
the face to ask them. Nearly 43 per cent of the old ducks still
on hand were laying the third week in October; the earliest of
the young were not hatched till April 21st. They had been
laying some time, and by the second week in October, about 40

per cent of the ducks from the first three broods were laying.

74

One correspondent wrote that he had not believed he would
like Runners and so killed all his drakes the first fall. A year
from the following December, he wrote me saying that the
ducks had begun laying in February and “T still get some eggs.”
This letter came Dec. 8, from New York state.

One man stated that 115 ducks had, one morning, produced
117 eggs. This can come, of course, only through some duck
giving an egg in less than 24 hours. It is very exceptional, but
I have seen similar reports published in several instances. One,
with affidavit, was of 98 eggs from 96 ducks. But, of course,
no one expects or asks for such results. Such reports come at
the height of the season, and probably under forced feeding.
Mr. Scott, the man claiming the 320-egg record, states that he
did not force this duck, except at the last, when he feared she
would just miss a 300-egg record.

I do not think it either wise, or just, to insist that people
believe a private record which far transcends any average ex-
perience even with birds well-cared-for. I do not know Mr.
Scott, except through his circular and correspondence. I have
sometimes prided myself on my knowledge of human nature,
however, and Mr. Scott seems to me to be a man of honest inten-
tion. He has kindly furnished me with his feeding formula,
which will be found in another chapter. I bought this informa-
tion for the benefit of the farm contingent of Runner breeders.
It does not differ so much from average practice as one might
expect. Mr. Scott believes especially that birds expected to
lay heavily should be well matured before beginning their work.

The New Hampshire farmer who wrote of the 117 eggs
from 115 ducks also wrote that they averaged 112 eggs a day |
for nearly a month. But he added: “I don’t dare tell this to
those who have had no experience with the Indian Runners, but
I know those who have will believe ‘most anything of them.”

The fact that the Runners are non-sitters helps out the rec-
ords. An occasional “freak” will try to sit, as with Leghorns.

#5

_._ The bane of the poultry beginner is that he expects always
the best results he has seen noted. If he could form.a. habit of
expecting an average of the good and the bad, to begin with,
there would often be more chance of his continuing: a poultry
raiser long enough to get the better results. There are too many
things to learn, for every one to succeed, off-hand. “The ‘Fail-
ures’ in the poultry ranks are nearly always found among those
who expect too much,” says a recent writer.

One breeder, in his circular, says that three ducks’ eggs | are
equal to five hens’ eggs in weight and food value; also, that
the Runners are practically grown at eight weeks, continuing :
“Last year, we had ducks laying at fifteen weeks of age.”

These claims seem to me to be rather beyond reason. Only
extremely exceptional conditions could possibly make them true.

Another breeder says that 60 per cent of the ducks’ feed is
water! All who credit it will, of course, breed ducks.

The Indian Runner and the Farm

CHAPTER . 1X

A letter concerning Indian Runners which came to me in
December, 1910, says: “I’ve tried several breeders in the north
and south to find one who bred the white-egg duck. One, I
believed, and parted with my money, only to discover that I had
bought ‘green’ ducks. The breeder claimed she could fill my
demand, as both parents and grandparents, for that matter, were
hatched from white eggs.”

Another farmer, who does a business large enough to run
about 1200 eggs in incubators through April, and who has re- -
cently made a start with English-bred Runners, says: “I have
picked out six females, all marked alike, fawn with concentric
penciling, and will reserve same for our own breeding. Our
females are well taken care of and with good care and attention
to them I am looking for a great egg yield. I am going to write
up a piece to have published later about a farmer’s experience
with Indian Runners, and I hope it will have weight with that
class. For if the average farmer can get eggs in winter from
the Runners when their hens do not lay, you can rest assured
they will have some.”

Because I see no future before the Indian Runner, even-
tually, except as a farm duck, I am especially glad to get the
farm point of view. The above letter was sent on to me by a
breeder in another state, that I might see how farm interest was
developing. It will be noted that, although the writer carries
far more than the average of poultry on a farm, as evidenced
by his incubating so many eggs, he is looking for something that
can do better in winter than is customary with hens. He is of
the better class of farmers, we can guess, because he selects
uniformly marked birds for breeding. He has enterprise, as.
is shown by the facts noted, and by his plan to write up his ex-
perience where it will attract other farmers. Beyond what his
letter may thus show us, I know nothing about him. But I
wish the country was fuller than it is of farmers with several
of the characteristics which show in this letter. However, deal-
ing continually, in my work, with queries from farmers all over
the country, I can testify that there are many more of the class
who have enterprise, education and good hard sense than people
who do not come into touch with them are ready to believe.

There are already many types of Indian Runners in the
country, entirely aside from the two very distinct and opposing
ones to which so much reference has already been made. It 1s
almost impossible for any breeder to put his hand to a breed
without transforming it to some extent. This is abundantly
shown even in the references to the “strains of different breed-
ers, and to the differing claims made by advertisers. How are
these changes made? Often—very often—by “hocus-pocus.”
That is, by putting in a dash of any blood which a breeder may
think will bring the birds nearer to his ideal—usually an ideal as
to feathers and form, rather than as to production. Production
cannot be ignored, to be sure, but it 1s made to take at least third
place; for color comes first with the average fancier, then form,
then, if he has no other hobby to work out, production, possibly.

78

But is is also true that no two breeders can take even the
same strain, with birds very similar, and, working entirely apart,
show the same type of birds at the end of five years. Each puts
his own stamp upon the breed, or variety. It may be that all
the change has been made by selection of eggs. It may be that
it has been made only in the selection of birds to carry on his
work. The fact remains that each worker is practically certain
to put his own special stamp, “his mark,’ upon the birds which
he will soon call his “strain.”

A breeder who was especially anxious to preserve and con-
tinue a certain type, wrote another for birds of that type, to be
descended from birds sent out from the yards of the first, some
years earlier. It was made plain that only. such birds were
wanted. The testimony of the first breeder to the outcome is as
follows: “I asked, before ordering, if they were just as had
of me, and in return the breeder: wrote that they were my strain,
PURE (with the words underlined). When they came and I ex-
amined them, I could see that other blood had been used; the
penciling was different, not so distinct, of a prettier shade of
fawn, if anything; but they were hardly as good in shape and
style, and I was ina panic. I thought I would return them, but
finally sold most of them, telling the customers just what they
were. ‘The remaining suspects I shall put in a yard by them-
selves and observe them.” Eventually, it came out that the
breeder from whom these ducks came had had one male from
a third breder running with the females of the first breeder’s
stock. There was no suspicion of intentional error, as far as I
know, for breeder number two was considered honest; but the
incident shows both how soon change of strain shows in the
progeny, and how difficult it is to-get just what one wants and
definitely orders. Human nature seems to have a strangely
transforming effect on varieties of fowls!

A breeder who had had fawn ducks of two types, from two
breeders, wrote me: “I am satisfied that I hurt the laying

79

qualities by use of the light strain, (the ‘second lot).” Both these
acquisitions proving to be layers of green eggs, this breeder
bought birds again, the third lot being from a well-known white-
egg strain. Another change then made itself manifest, of which
he writes: “My old ducks could not and would not fly under
any circumstances like the last ones. One of the new is far
ahead of any I have ever seen in upright carriage, and I would
like to get all of mine of that type.”

There is one pointer here that is worth noting. The white
egg ducks in 1910 were of the more active type, and also of
better carriage than anything furnished this breeder by two of
the very best breeders of the solid fawn strains.

Being a very honest man, the writer of this letter was
anxious to know about the tendency to flying BECAUSE he had
told customers that a two-foot fence would confine these ducks.
I chanced to have a personal word to add to the solution of this
problem, because | had bred for some time the very strain he
reported as being such flyers, and had never used anything but
a two-foot fence to confine them, nor ever known them to fly
over it. But it is perfectly easy to train these birds, or any
others, to be breachy, by using fences too low or too weak when
the birds are young and most active. The size of yards, too,
may have an influence on this especial characteristic. Small
yards, which offer no good starting point for strong flight, will
often confine the bird—any birds—much better than larger yards.
That is, not such high fences will be demanded. It is in the
daily and yearly learning of such things as these as they come
along, that any poultry raiser gets “knack” and accumulates a
store of wisdom on innumerable points which it is simply im-
possible to pass on in entirety to any other worker. It is one
point at a time usually. |

Just before we went to press with the first edition of “The
Indian Runner Duck Book,” an authoritative letter from Eng-
land was received. It told of many inquiries for cheap birds

80

coming from America and said: ‘There is no one with real
good type birds willing to sell at utility prices. In fact, I have
seen birds for which ten to twenty pounds (about fifty to one
hundred dollars) was asked, of very bad type and carriage; in
my opinion, fit only for the pot. I think it unfair to ask those
who have really good birds to sell them for killing prices, al-
most.’’ Concerning one of the newer American theories as to
the origin of Indian Runners, the same breeder says: “It is
worth framing, as it is one of the most incorrect and ridiculous
articles I have seen, and the writer is entirely at sea. ‘The
Common Mongrel, etc.,, would have been a more appropriate
title.”

In this connection, I may say that there is a movement in
England at this writing which promises to develop into the
publication of a thorough and reliable book on the Indian Run-
ner, giving all that is now known about its history, from the
first to the present time. This is certainly a movement in the
right direction, and I shall look with much interest for the pur-
posed publication.

The Patent Office at W ashington has recently been showing
symptoms of interest in the Runners, through an employe.
Whether they are to be patented, or not, is not yet announced.
If so, many breeders will be on edge to learn which type will thus
receive recognition ! |

In other directions, also, matters are moving. I think it
was late in 1g1o, though I am not quite certain as to the date,
that a breeder in the east sent a trio of English-bred Indian
Runners to the Government Experiment Station of Porto Rico,
for experimental purposes. It is quite time some one in author-
ity was doing something with these ducks, on this side of the
Atlantic ocean. For, if the things which Indian Runner breed-
ers have been saying have been untrue, they would result in
uncounted waste of money for the thousands of farmers who

will try them. Whereas, if they can be proved true by so.ne

SI

of those in whom the farming contingent have confidence, it
will mean hundreds of thousands of dollars for the farmer’s
pockets. We know positively that breeders in this country, even
women on the farms, are making hundreds of dollars from their
Indian Runners each year. On the date of January 26, 1911, 1
received a circular from one such woman, claiming that her
ducks were made to average over ten dollars each in eight
months. It is not likely that this was from market eggs, how-
ever. But with a yield of 180, and a price of 35c, the gross
income would be more than half this amount. The crying need
at present is for some Experiment Station here to make an ex-
haustive test of both types of Indian Runners for the benefit
of the American farmer, on the market egg basis.

A farmer who believes thoroughly in Penciled Runners, sent
a pen to the Missouri Station, for entry in the National Com-
petition, under Mr. Quisenberry. Unfortunately, most of the
birds were smothered en route and we shall thus have to wait
a year for this comparative history.

Australia and New Zealand are far ahead of us in the things
they do for the benefit of the farming population and the com-
mon people at large. But, as these matters depend largely on
the common people’s vote, it may be said that they are the ones
chiefly to blame for what they do not get. The average man
does not even know what his government is trying to do for
him. And the Government is usually far more anxious to do
something for him than he is to have things done, if we may
judge by what is on the surface. Professors of Poultry Hus-
bandry, for instance, are jubilant when they succeed, by all the
arts at their command, in getting the names of many farmers.
This is just because they know the Station can help the farmers,
as soon as it gets into touch with them. And the best help must
come through work with the farmers, man by man. In the mat-
ter of choice of type in the Indian Runner, I am in a position
to know that our Agricultural authorities at Washington deliber-

82

ately threw aside a chance to do something for the farming
people in studying the two warring types of the Indian Runner.
They assumed that the fanciers were right in breeding to fawn,
simply because the fawn contingent was in the majority and
slavishly followed the Standard. As an interesting commentary
en this, a disgusted word from one who has bred Indian Runners
for years fits in as nothing else could. He was engaged in
the practical job of catching birds to fill a shipment and for
his own breeding pens. Color study was, of course, a main
feature in O. K.-ing, or discarding specimens, and, as is always
the case, many birds that looked well on their feet had to be
rated as seconds on account of fawn in the flight feathers. I
happened to be looking on, and heard his dictum: “Color in
Indian Runners is nothing but a humbug anyway, for they
change color every two months. How are you going to describe
the color fairly when that is the case? It is out of the ques-
tion! And who is going to say which is the right color, that
of December, or of March or of June?’ It struck me that this
was as pungent a comment on the folly of ruining the distinctive-
ness of the Indian Runner (because some one happened to think
fawn in solid color was more desirable than any two shades of
fawn penciled together might be) as could possibly be made.
The question must always be, Which of the varying shades of
fawn is Standard fawn, and when shall the bird be judged on
color,—in winter or in summer? If in summer, or spring, it
must be far too dark in December; if in December it is to be
just right, it will be nothing but dirty white in June. And this
everybody knows.

I saw two breeders selecting a bird to fill an order that
called for a high class specimen. The choice lay between two
birds, one of which was nearly perfect in color, but was only
moderately long in body and neck. The other was of beautiful
shape and carriage, but had a flaw in the wing flight. “Which

would you send? Which would you rather have if you were
83

choosing for your own yard?” said one to the other. ‘The slim,
long bird, every time,” was the reply. ‘“What,—sure! even with
the flawed wing, and remembering that it will affect the whole
flock?’ “Yes; even at that. I stand for type first.” “But
what about shipping it to a customer? Would you decide on
that one to fill the order?” “No—o, I’m afraid not,’ was the
half willing reply. ‘The customer will be better satisfied with
the bird that is better in color.” |

All who have bred Runners long know this to be the case;
and the reason is that, though Standard law, as generally applied,
theoretically put shape above color, in actual practice, color,
(when at all hard to get) virtually takes precedence of type, as
the birds are judged in competition. And this is what every
breeder of Standard birds has to meet. He dares not send
what he believes to be the better bird, many times, because cus-
tom has over-ridden Standard Law. The very simple reason is,
doubtless, that color appeals far more quickly to the average
person, than does shape. Many a breeder of years standing,
cannot select the birds typical in shape and style. And the
public, which sees the shows and which buys stock, is more
easily satisfied with the better colored bird, when it becomes a
choice between color and shape, unless the shape is inexcusably
bad.

I have known the American farm and the American farmer
ever since I opened my eyes on one of these farms for the first
time—my father’s farm. On this farm, there was a pond, and
ducks were always kept and prized. But there was nothing
like the Indian Runner. I feel that I am in a position to know
something of the farm attitude toward most things. More-
over, very many of my correspondents are general farmers.
One of them in Virginia, said, last July (11): “I am lame on
ducks. Have read so much dope on Indian Runners that I
thought I would try them out. Have 75 young ones. It will
take me a year to know where I am at; yes, more than a year.

84

If they do not lay from 175 to 200 eggs, I do not want to hatch
any more next spring; and if all this dope is straight, I do want
to hatch a lot of them. So, please put me wise—how many
eggs will they lay? I carry S. C. White Leghorns on free range
and ship to N. Y. by express and get the short end of the
near-by hennery quotation. Can I do any better? All poultry
magazines and chicken literature have nothing to say about
markets or advice as to the commercial end, the very life of the
poultry industry. Have had to grope my way and am still on
the grope. You start a chicken magazine devoted to the com-
mercial end of the egg business and you will soon be able to
give away libraries and ‘other foolish things’ !”

I think the New York market has taken a stronger liking
than usual to the large egg, just of late. At least, more mention
is made of it. If dealing with honest firms, there is no need
for anybody nearby to take “the short end” on egg quotations,
provided he furnishes strictly fresh large white eggs. This is
for New York, and speaking of hen eggs. It seems to me that
even if the Runner duck will not lay from 175 to 200 eggs, she
may be well worth while in many parts of the country. The
one record which we have which the average farmer will care
to tie to, is that of Hawkesbury College, 200 eggs three years in
succession. And I think it fair to say, in reply to the above,
“Yes; if you make your conditions the same as theirs.”

But, here I have a farm story. The man who tells it is
at least as honest as | am, and of course readers cannot expect
me to say anything much stronger than this! He lives in Vir-
ginia. He says :

“T have 55 ducks and fifteen drakes all together at night,
and on range in day. Have not separated those not needed as
had no good place to put them, and many other things to look
after. I got some 25 eggs (a day) about the 16th of Jan. My
output then steadily decreased to zero, started again and went
up to 19. ‘To-day I got thirteen. Please tell me how many

8

Cyt

you would let roost together, or would you separate into small
bunches? I recall absolutely no article covering ail this.”
Later, I had a letter saying there was trouble with the feed
which made this drop in eggs. Forty-five per cent by the mid-
dle of January is not so bad, in a farm flock on range, and gives
a pretty fair start toward 200 for the year.

This man had twice as many males as he should. But, on
another farm in another state, I saw between 125 and 150 run-
ning together, because it was difficult to separate and give all
equally good conditions. I think it safe to say that only the
fact of good water privilege and range saved the young of this
flock from being spoiled, and preserved any kind of a record for
eggs. We must admit that farm conditions must be fairly met,
without too much fussiness. But, we may as well apprehend
first as last that old and young in very large lots all together
cannot thrive and give the highest records. I do not like to
put any young birds with old until at least a year old. And
ducks often injure each other by crowding, because they go
into panics so easily, when frightened.

The poultryman from one of the more important Agricul-
tural Colleges wrote to a widely-circulated farm paper last
spring, an article somewhat detractive of the Indian Runner,
especially saying that ducks would eat so much as to cut apparent
profits severely.

Mr. Robinson has said in his book of general reference:
“Tt is often said, even by those who should know better, that it
is impossible to satisfy the appetite of a duck. Such statements
lead people to think it much-more expensive to feed ducks than
to feed other fowls. A flock of grown ducks will not eat more
than an equal number of average chickens, NOR DOES IT RE-
QUIRE MORE FOOD TO GROW A DUCK THAN IT
DOES TO GROW A CHICKEN OF THE SAME WEIGHT.”
Mr. Robinson also says: ‘In most places, poultrymen growing
both chickens and ducks will usually find the latter more profit- —
able as long as their home market is not overstocked.”

This was written of ducks in general, before the Indian
Runner Duck had attracted any attention to speak of in this
country. If true of other ducks, much more is it true of the
Indian Runner. I will ask readers to note again the phrase
“of the same weight.” It is because ducks get size so very
quickly that they eat so much while growing. _And the reason
so many fail to find ducks profitable is that their own bad man-
agement cheats them out of the profit the ducks made for them
in ten weeks, by keeping them on to eat for weeks or months
longer, after their period of most rapid growth is over! Please
note this, as it is the vital point for those who would sell duck
meat.
A young duck does gobble large quantities of food; but it
grows in proportion, so fast that we may say, on occasion, that
we “can see it grow.” That is, day after to-morrow, it will
look almost twice as large as it does to-day. A grower of Run-
ners writes: ‘I never in all my experience with poultry saw
anything grow like an Indian Runner Duckling. My ducklings
are the curiosity of the neighborhood. At the age of five weeks,
I haven’t a duckling that weighs less than a pound and a half. I
have investigated rather exhaustively, and I can well afford to
take the chance on making a market, but I would not have the
ghost of a show if I had green eggs.”

This letter was written the middle of June. A letter of later
date said that certain ducklings of this worker were seven weeks
old, and a lot of Barred Rock chicks three days younger. On
weighing and comparing, he found every duck weighing above
two pounds, some a half pound above. The largest chick in the
lot of about equal age weighed about three-quarters of a pound.
His comment was: “I wish I had 700 ducklings at the present
time; they would be good money, even as market fowls.”

In order to be able to speak from personal knowledge, I
myself weighed Runner ducklings, Columbian Wyandottes and
Embden geese. At 26 days old the White Runners weighed one

87

pound each; the Columbians of similar age weighed four ounces,
(one-fourth as much, notice!). Runners 60 days old weighed
three pounds each; Columbians 41 days old, the nearest in age
on hand, weighed less than a pound. The Embden weighed
tipped the scales at five pounds, when just about one month old.
I know of nothing else in the fowl line which grows so fast, espe-
cially considering that they are rather light eaters.

Water fowl will eat cheaper foods than will hens, so that
the food question may, so to speak, be “dodged.” There really
isn’t any food question, as between growing chicks and growing
ducklings, when we consider the rapid gains made by the duck-
lings. If there were, it would be in favor of the ducks. - The
three vital companion questions, to the farm, are the feed ques-
tion, the laying and the market. The Runner will settle the
first two 1f the farmer is good for the last. His salesmanship is
the one thing to be called in question, in the case of the Indian
Runners.

A farmer whose experience covers five years says that he
would not be without them. This is in south Jersey. He said,
in r9tt, that he had shipped to the commission houses, getting
in no case less than three’ cents. above the price for ‘hen eggs:
This’ was in August. "The usual pfice was Six to ten Cems
above that of hen eggs. In spring often 20c more. He stated,
in the Rural New Yorker: ‘I have tried different-sized flocks,
and I find that it pays best to have 75 to roo layers, for you will
be able even in the slack months to ship the eggs fresh. If the
flock is small, some would be rather stale before you had enough.
I ship in 30-dozen crates. I don’t believe a duck egg will stand
the abuse a hen egg often gets. This will make freshness a
necessity, as it should be with all eggs. While the hen man is
clearing his droppings-boards, fighting lice and mites, but espe-
cially roup and gapes, the duck man has only to fork out the

soiled bedding on the floor and throw in a forkful of straw.”

88

Po
a
Va
a
Pai)"

W. W. Henry, Virginia, says: “I can give my testimony
as to its being entirely practical to handle a few ducks with hens,
where all are on good range, and to feed all alike on a grain
ration and get good results. I have seen Indian Runner ducks
up at night to feed with hens, and gone in the morning before
they were fed, yet lay splendidly from the middle of January to
August; but, mind you! there was fine range and only about
six ducks. My birds commenced to lay on oats alone in October
of this year (1911). I have always had them with hens and
now have some 46 ducks and about 200 hens and pullets. I get
about 35 eggs a day, and half of their feed is grain (oats and
corn). The authorities say the duck is not adapted to grain
feeding, but I never feed anything else in the November laying
season. After I have fed mash to young birds till they have
good size, I then feed grain alone. I have done this because it
was convenient and not because I thought it best, yet my birds
do well in open weather. |

“This ought to be a good thing for average farmers to know.
I have only some seventy ducks, young and old (not counting
drakes). I could not raise what I wished on account of the
great demand for eggs.” Mr. Henry is a general farmer, with-
out help, and handles his ducks so that they may be as little
trouble as possible, consistent with thrift and profit. He handles
the penciled birds, and refused more egg orders than he filled |
in 1911, if | remember correctly the words of a previous letter.

In one of my 1911 letters concerning a new breeder of the
Penciled Runners, another friend wrote: “The V’s wrote me
they have sold some ducks to go to Oregon at five dollars each.
Sold eggs at five dollars per sitting from a small mating, and
$30.00 per hundred. One man took $97.00 worth; another
$60.00 worth.”

Of this same young farmer, the beloved T. B. Terry wrote
publicly : “T know him to be straight and true, a pusher, too.
Speaking of the young man’s selling $1000 worth of eggs during

&9

a year, shipping under lock and key, Mr. Terry added, “And
our friend cannot begin to supply the demand,” referred to the
incredible price received, and went on to tell of his: putting in
Indian Runners (the penciled kind, as I chance to know). The
first season, he hatched 89 ducklings from 120 eggs, by machine,
and raised all but three. “All this was the result of extreme

5}

care, of course,” adds Mr. Terry. The name of the young man
is C. K. Vanderbilt. I visited his place in 1911, saw his fine
large flock of Penciled Runners, his commission receipts, etc.
I do not think he has had any exceptional opportunity, except
what clever business forecasting and systematic work may give.
Mr. Vanderbilt sent two dozen of his eggs from the Penciled
Runners to the publishers of “Poultry Success.” After testing
these, they reported: “In eating the Indian Runner Duck eggs
one cannot find any difference in flavor from hens’ eggs. The
duck eggs do not have that strong flavor and taste, like the
Pekin eggs do. The yolk is fine-grained and smoother; the
albumen is firmer in texture than hens’ eggs, and it really takes
an expert to tell the difference when eating them.”

Mr. Vanderbilt’s success has been so instant, and he is such
a thorough-going farmer and so straightforward a man that I
have asked him to write out at some length his experience with
the Penciled Runners on the “Peerless Poultry Farm.” He does
so as follows:

“In all my experience with poultry (some 18 years), I have
enjoyed the work most during the past two years, as I have been
raising the Indian Runner ducks. They have turned out to be
the Farmers’ Best Egg Machine. They can stand more real
hardship than any other fowls, requiring only a good dry place
to stay in at night, and in winter weather. Our Runners are
the English-bred, dark fawn and white type, or as some term
them, the Penciled Runners; but they lay the large pearly white
eggs, and that is what suits the average farmer of today. I
have given my neighbor farmers the eggs to test for eating, and

go

they all went wild over them. What was the result? Why
they have them on their farms today producing such eggs as I
showed them. One farmer’s wife drove nine miles to our place,
and in coming here, went past a farmer who had the “sports”
that layed the green eggs. But after seeing the fine large white
eggs from our Penciled Runners, she took home 100 eggs to put
in an incubator.

“I find that the eggs hatch well in incubators, but if you
want to get real big hatches, use Plymouth Rock hens. We
keep quite a number for that purpose. When our ducks began
to lay a year ago in January, we sent what accumulated, with
our hens’ eggs, to the New York City market, and received sev-
eral cents more per dozen than for the hens’ eggs. But when
the breeding season commenced, we did some advertising, and
could not keep up with the orders that came in for the eggs.
Later in the season, we sold all the baby ducklings we could
hatch till September. We sent them west as far as Illinois, and
south as far as Virginia.

“My experience in raising them is that they do not require
the feed and labor that hens need. The best method of brood-
ing them is with hens; I put 10 to 15 ducklings with each hen
in a common slatted box like a southern berry crate without a
bottom, and put a piece of prepared roofing over the top, back
and ends to keep out wind and rain. I move this every other
day, putting up a board in front of them at night to keep out
skunks, weasels or other animals that might molest them. In
this way, I can raise 90 per cent of all I hatch. Brooders are
all right, but for the average farmer, the hens are best. I have
raised them both ways and know. ‘The simplest and best feed
for the ducklings is bread soaked in milk, squeezed quite dry
and crumbled on a clean board by the coops, for the first week;
then I feed four parts by measure of bran, one part of corn
meal, one part of middlings, with a little sand mixed in. Feed
this mixture moistened for about a week, then add 5 per cent of

gI

beef scraps, and continue this for six or eight weeks, giving them
a grass pasture.

For water fountains, I use the inverted gallon cans on
saucers; they are simple and easy to keep clean. It is not
necessary to have running water. A sunken basin made of
cement in the ground makes an excellent place for them to take
a bath, for they do enjoy it.

“Much has been said about care and feeding of the Indian

Runner ducks, but let me say right here that it is the product _

from the Runners that gives them value to the open-eyed farmer.
Their eggs are larger than and just as white as the Leghorn
eggs, and a basketful of Runner eggs taken into a city or coun-
try town will more than take the eyes of people who are lovers
of eggs. My own experience proved this true, for my wife
took several dozen to have a photo made from them, and they
were all sold before she was out of the photo gallery, at an
advanced price over the highest market price of hens’ eggs, and
orders followed her home for more of the eggs.

“Every good sound-minded farmer knows that anything
fancy is out of the farmers’ line; what they want is practical
results. They want something in return for their money. My
advice, as a farmer, to all farmer friends when buying eggs or
stock is to get the real true Indian Runners, and not mere “fancy
stock,’ unless you want to attend the shows and take in 50-cent
premiums. Compare this with a basketful of nice large white
eggs that will put smiles on all that see them and want them.

‘Now to give real facts concerning the Runners. Although
breeders advertise them as “Great Money Makers,’ don’t for a
minute think that the Runners are going to do it all themselves.
You may think just buying some, taking them home, letting them
out and giving them the run that they are going to have, will
make you rich. Not a bit of it! Any more than a good Jersey
cow will on poor pasture! You must feed that cow first before
you expect to get much returns; so with the Runner duck.

Q2

Give her half a chance! She is built to produce something.
She will hold her end as a forager and make her own living
any way; but just give her real feed, and she will keep you carry-
ing baskets of eggs every morning almost the year ’round if you
have a large flock. Our correspondence shows that all are satis-
fed who have tried the white-egg strain of Runners, English
type.

“We grow Alfalfa by the ton, and have equipped the feed-
ing room in our poultry house with a gasoline engine and Alfalfa
cutter that cuts the hay into %-inch lengths. We mix this in
all our mash for the poultry and we know that it saves 40 per
cent of our feed bills with the Rumers. Too much cannot be
said concerning Alfalfa for ducks and poultry. The Cornell
University people sent me their feeding ration for breeding
stock, and I tried it, thoroughly, for months. It is a good one:
70 pounds corn meal, 15 pounds bran, 10 pounds middlings, 15
pounds whole oats, 25 pounds wheat and 15 pounds meat scrap.
Give them a moist mash of this in the morning, and let them
rtin on grass range or the Alfalfa field. Give them a little corn
and wheat at night. I never failed to get lots of eggs, and
hatchable eggs, too.

“IT know that the American people are going to demand the
English type of white-egg Runners when they wake up from
their slumbers over the short-bodied, dumpy, green-egg sort
that are only a fad for a few short years.”

One of the points New York market is strenuous on lately
is that eggs that meet the requirements of first-class stock must
“stand up well,’ must be “full-bodied,” and firm as to the con-
tents, especially the albumen, or “white.” Candlers find out
“all about” the inside of an egg, you see. Note, please, that the
new laid Indian Runner egg has just this wanted quality, above
the average best hens’ eggs.

On a New Hampshire farm, one clever grower with initia-
tive to find new ways of making the Runners profitable to him,

93

wrote me of this “dodge.”: “I find ducks valuable for two
‘reasons not mentioned in the papers. I use the Cornell [Agricul-
tural College] A brooder, 8x8 feet, without the heat, and I put
in a few. young ducks with my chicks. The houses are as free
from lice as a parlor, with no more attention from me, and the
chicks are the best I ever raised, none naked or droopy. Before
having ducks, I lost many by hawks. Now, I keep all in a
covered run until the first ducks get their voices, then I let them
all go, and hawks are seen no more.”

Manifestly, this is intended to show that the noise of the
ducks keeps the hawks off. Some may put this with the stories
of the Indian Runners being so very quiet, and wonder whether
“two and two make four,” as of old! They do, even as of old.
The ducks are very quiet, unless there 1s reason to make a noise,
in which case, they can “raise the roof.” For this, I am often
devoutly thankful, as is many another living in or near town
and factory conditions. If the ducks go to bed hungry look out
for your slumber! You won't be allowed to take it. And if
there is danger, shown by noise and commotion generally, take
your cue and find out why—and, do it quickly! :

94

Feeding Methods Safe for All

CHAPTER X

There is a knack about the handling of ducks which has to
be learned. It is fortunate that it can be learned quite readily
from the literature. Much of it lies in knowing just where ducks
differ from hens, in their requirements. The love of ducks for
the water is well known, and the very fact that they fall in the
“Water Fowl!” class affirms it.

Still, it is very difficult to some to realize that ducks always
need drinking water before they need feed; and, on the other
hand, it is difficult to realize that ducks can be raised virtually
as land birds, with no water but that which a tub may hold; and
that, if they have good grass range, they will not seem to suffer
material immediate deterioration. It is, of course, much harder
work to raise yarded ducks without running water, since they
love to play in water, will waste much that is provided for them,
and cannot be neglected in this matter. If they are without
drinking water a single half hour, they become uneasy, noisy, and
obtrusive of their sufferings. In small quarters, ducks are said
to be, in general, the most easily managed of all domestic fowls ;
(some say, the most profitable, also.) I saw an instance of
this, as far as it relates to housing, which was a revelation as

95

to the easy adaptability of ducks to the conditions which they
must needs meet. The duck shelter to which I refer was just
a one-room, dirt-floor, double-pitch arrangement, the upper half
of the usual siding being replaced by wire netting. The floor
ineasurement may have been ten by twelve feet. Through the
center, lengthwise, nearly the whole length, ran an alley. At
one end and on the sides of this alley, were, I think, seven pens
for ducks. The cat was not there to be “swung,” but I am sure
there was not room in any one of these. divisions. Yet, the
ducks seemed to be doing well enough. The matter that saved
the situation was that the shelter stood at the head of a steep
slope, and there was running water at the bottom to which the
mature birds had continual access. Such confined — quarters

’

(“sevenths,” rather) are not to be advised; but the story shows
how especial care in one direction may offset, when necessary,
some neglect or lack in another. ;

Duck houses are of the simplest construction, and about the
only need is a roof with three or four walls, and some rather
deep, clean litter. . Many times, they prefer to sit out, entirely
exposed to the weather. But this is a matter which affects their
breeding value much, in some seasons. <A valuable breeding bird
requires comfort, and if she have not a comfortable shelter and
warm litter, many of her eggs will be wasted through chilling,
during the early part of the year. One should not forget that,
although ducks are water fowl, they. need dry shelters and
drained soil, at least near their sleeping place. I have seen
ordinary puddle ducks, probably once kin to the Rouen aris-
tocracy, sit all night in the dead of winter on a pond, just where
it was fed from a living spring. But these ducks were not
expected to lay until March.

The foregoing remarks indicate the general handling which
goes to the making of a vigorous breeder, or a vigorous layer.
The market duck is handled differently while growing, especially
in the matter of feed. The very sweeping statement has been

96

made that there is only one duck for profit, as that one is so
far superior to all the others. But this statement was penned
eleven years ago, when the very name of Indian Runner was
practically unknown in this country. More recently, an ex-
tensive grower of the big, market ducks has told me that, in
his opinion, there would never be any market for the Indian
Runner. Fortunately growers of Indian Runners are disproving
this to some extent, although at the present writing, these ducks
are unknown to the majority, probably, of city commission men.
Indeed, in New York City itself, I have found few firms familiar
with the Indian Runner by name. The author of “Poultry
Craft” says that exclusive duck farming can be made profitable
only near a large city, where there is a good demand for ducks;
a few ducks, he admits, can be grown profitably almost any-
where. The same author says that, on large plants, the estimated
cost of growing is up to eight cents a pound, and that special
duck farmers would soon have to go out of business through
the very fouling of the soil, and its consequent unhealthfulness,
did they not use the latter part of the summer season in making
it sanitary through the use of growing crops.

Fortunately, the Indian Runner can make good so fully in a
single, special line, that of egg production the year around, that —
we scarcely need to listen to the market men, no matter what
they have to say about real, market ducks. The Runner breed-
ers will have only to dispose of their worn-out layers. And,
the Runners lay well until several years old, according to testi-
mony.

The feed, then, will not usually be that of the market duck,
but that of the breeder and layer. One part green food to two
parts grain mixture largely in mash is the general rule to pro-
duce a well-framed duck. All will be fed on this basis till, pos-
sibly eight weeks old. After this, the market duck needs more
corn in some form. ‘The stock to be grown on is kept on about
the same ration right along till it is time for laying to begin.

97

[It is understood that meat is always fed after the ducklings are
a few days or a week old, the amount being increased as the
birds get larger. ‘Ten per cent is about the average given to the
ducks well started, which is sometimes increased to twelve per
cent just before fattening time, if they are to go to market.

As to substituting milk for meat, a very successful feeder
tells me that he regards bone as more essential than meat. Milk
is safer than meat, because meat is so uneven in quality and often
poor, but he would use bone in connection with milk. I regard
this as an extremely valuable suggestion.

If a single article of food were to be mentioned as of more
value to duck breeders than any other, doubtless it would be
bran. Bran, however, differs, in these times, from the older
mill product, and modern brans are not all alike. I wish to im-
press especially the need of securing a good grade of feeding
stuffs for ducks. Tainted meat, or moldy ground stuff will work
quick havoc with ducklings, at almost any age. Some time ago,
a correspondent wrote to inquire what could be done for the
ducklings, which had suddenly begun to die by the score and
almost by the hundred. Every possible point of failure was
canvassed, but handling seemed to be correct upon all, till we
came to the question of spoiled food. Then it came out that
a mill which had been relied upon, was putting out a product
made from grains that had virtually become rotted in the fields.

Ducks have a desirable quality in the fact that they will not
eat when really sick, and thus they have some chance to recover.
The universal testimony is that a duck well-hatched is as good
as raised, after one gets the knack, and the chief difficulty in
taising ducks inheres in their greedy desire to gorge themselves,
combined with neglect, by their owner, to make sure that they
always have water to help them at this weak point. Dry feed
and withheld water are the duck’s worst combination foe. Con-
siderable can be done to ward off trouble by soaking the cracked
corn which is used, for an hour or so before feeding it. (The

98

only point to watch out against is letting it ferment in extreme
warm weather.) Being then swollen before it is eaten, it will
not make trouble by swelling after being eaten. The duck has
no crop proper, like the hen. The feed is passed into the
stomach, and thence through the other organs of digestion. The
duckling eats eagerly and often. This is, no doubt, the chief
reason why it does not do to use too much hard, dry grain, or
to omit water at any time. We have found much satisfaction
in feeding stale bread soaked in milk, in connection with bran,
for the first few weeks. Cracked corn is used for one meal a
day, and clover, cut sweet-corn stalks, grass, rape, weeds, cab-
bage, beet pulp and other things that may be handy, help out
the growers who may not have grass range.

The matter of shade is one which must never be overlooked.
I have seen, on farms where there was abundance of delightful
shade, both duck and chicken coops located out in the open,
under a broiling July or August sun. At the same time, the
shallow water dishes were entirely dry, it might be for hours.
Such ducks and chickens are pre-destined to die of mysterious
(?) causes, and none can ward this off till shade and water
become a part of the constant conditions under which they grow.
Ducks are very sensitive to the heat of summer suns, and I -
have seen even the less sensitive chickens thrown into convul-
sions or limberneck during the awful heat of midsummer con-
ditions without shade. The best of things can, however, be
overdone. The one safe way is to make both shade and sun-
shine free to the younglings, and let them choose for themselves
which they will take at any one time. It is not necessary, as one
breeder did, when told to provide shade, to coop the ducks so
that they could not get from under the dense shade of an over-
head grape arbor. Even summer days vary much, and summer
nights become as cold as autumn, at times. I have worn mit-
tens on the fourth of July, and even then suffered with the cold,
in New York state. An exception, of course, but one never

99

knows when an exception may arise. Forethought is one’s best
defence, and must be a continual part of the pouitryman’s
panoply.

It is altogether better to feed and water outside the shelters,
except under very unusual conditions. All who keep ducks
under conditions which require yarding, make much use of
small grit, and many use charcoal also, at least, occasionally.
Charcoal is especially good in the case of trouble with indiges-
tion. But, inasmuch as the old saw about locking the barn
after the horse is stolen applies with great force to ducks, the
wise duck grower studies his conditions carefully, and so plans
as to render impossible, those things which are likely to make
trouble in the duck yard.

One careful grower known to me who would by no means
be caught napping about anything in the regular preventive line,
has lost a large bunch of ducks through hunters; another,
through the ducklings having eaten rose beetles.

The sexes are usually about equally represented in the young
stock. Occasionally, a freakish hatch may be very unequal.
One buyer, in 1910, reported one duck and nine drakes raised
from one setting of eggs; while another, more under fortune’s
care, apparently, reports, on the very morning when I am writing
this chapter, three drakes to nine ducks.

One breeder suggests that real beginners could more easily
enter upon poultry culture with Indian Runners than with any
variety of hens, because they “would meet with but few of the
vexing problems and setbacks that would fall to their lot 1f
they tackled chickens.” The first requisite in handling, he says,
is to get pure-bred Runners, “free from crossing with Pekin and
other ducks.” s

To speak definitely of our own experience, I may say that
we have hatched and raised our Runners entirely with hens.
Early in the season, I give not more than nine eggs to a hen.
This is equal to 13 hens’ eggs. A nest with a sod or earth

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Nestlings of English-bred Runners

bottom is best. The eggs are supposed to hatch in 28 days, but
I have had a brood all out and in the coop before the end of
the 28th day. The ducklings require little feed the first day or
two. I do not try to feed them till they begin to look for it,
for they do not need it earlier. They should have water in a
shallow dish so that they cannot get wet in it, and this means re-
filling it often. The first feed is stale bread soaked in sweet
milk. If I couldn’t get this, I think, from my present knowl-
edge, I might feed Spratt’s Duck feed, just at first. After a
very few days, I add to the soaked bread a little bran and mid-
dlings, a little ground corn and oats with the hulls sifted out,
and some clean sand or fine grit. Just as soon as they will
eat it, | work in succulent feed in the way of chopped cabbage,
lettuce, rape or similar greens. If the green juicy stuff is not
available, scalded cut clover is excellent. But something of this
character is imperative for ducks, unless they have abundant
good pasturage. I feed five times daily for the first few weeks,
and mix in a little sand once daily. At least one feed is of green
stuff. After a few days, I add a little good beef scrap; the
less milk the more scrap. Don’t use scrap that smells like
fertilizer. And be sure all feed is sound and sweet. If the
milk sours, I would make it into curds and mix with the other
ingredients, and use a little more bran in proportion.

The ducklings are very sensitive to cold and wet for the
first few days of their lives. They must have protection from
storms till they are feathered. I have found them so nearly
drowned by a sudden, hard shower that reviving them seemed
hopeless. But drying and warming them by the kitchen range
put renewed life into the chilled bodies, and they seemed none
the worse for the wetting. Their recuperative powers seem to
be great. They will reach the point where they do not need
the hen sooner than will chicks. But they should always have
some shelter to which they can retreat. An open shed seems to
suit them admirably.

101

A shed-like house, situated on sloping land, usually open
to the sun, but planned to close at night when necessary and
having good litter, about covers the real needs, as to shelter, for
the breeding ducks, or the layers. At the south I would board
only on the side of the prevailing wind.

Concerning the most deeply interesting point, as to how
freely the Indian Runners will lay in the “off” season for hens’
eggs, testimony varies so much as to convince me that it is
quite a matter of handling.

The H— ducks lay during the moulting season, and on into
the extreme cold months. The report is, 75 per cent of them lay-
ing by February 1. And that the (large) flock averaged 99 eggs
per duck in 108 days; also, that the eggs laid during the five
poorer months of the year will “more than pay all expenses of
feed, shipping baskets, printing and advertising for the entire
year.” !

Mrs. Brooks’s birds lay during the moult (to a lesser extent
than in spring, of course) and she ships eggs for hatching in
November, the sparsest month of the year for hens’ eggs. One
breeder, writing in November, says: ‘Every mail brings re-
ports of ducks from my eggs laying.”

Judge Clipp says that he sees duck eggs in the exhibition
coops of the Runners at midwinter (even after trying ship-
ments). The early hatched may begin to lay in July, and “any-
body’s” will lay in February. Mr. Hurt says that the very
slender neck, long, thin body and alert carriage characterize the
best layers. “The White Queen,” the best bird I have seen in
America, as regards genuine type, may well serve as a model for
those who would fix the correct type firmly in mind. Compare
her with Walton’s ideal sketches, published in this country in
May, 1910, and see how little she lacks of meeting them. Is
she not, in fact, far more beautiful?

Having a good, laying type, one needs to provide etnies
table housing at night, a spot sheltered from winds during the

102

days, and liberal rations, with a goodly proportion of meat.
This sums up the matter of the egg harvest.

I must not, however, leave any one with the impression that
only one method of feeding will do for Indian Runner Ducks,
or other ducks. The methods most commonly recommended
in handling ducks have been gleaned chiefly from the handling
of the men who raise them commercially, for the sake of the
carcass: They are the methods of those who yard their ducks,
and push them almost beyond reason when they are to go to
market early.

On the farm, especially where there is abundant room and
natural water privileges, one may do differently. J am accus-
tomed to a rough mental grouping of feeds which is easily pos-
sible to any feeder. It includes the starchy feeds, which are
heat and fat makers, (including fats themselves with the fat
makers, at a higher value); the muscle and egg makers form
my second group; the green feeds, clover meals, vegetables, form
the third. If birds are on free, good range, we need not think
much about this third class. If not, we must make much of
it, and use its members in large proportion. We must remem-
ber that grass is not the same as hay, because it is so largely
water. Proportions may be roughly in one’s mind, something
like one part of muscle-makers to two of fat and six or seven
of the starchy things (which means, mostly, the grains in their
natural state, unground and undivided as to food values). To
produce eggs, one adds a larger proportion of the muscle-makers,
like peas, beans, meat, etc. This is all that is necessary for a
feeder to know, except whether any special feed ranks high as
a muscle-maker or a fat maker. This is really the base of that
far more elaborate thing called “scientific feeding.”

From S. H. Scott, Onehunga, New Zealand: “My Won-
der kept on laying till she had laid 200 eggs in 205 days, after
which she went into a partial moult. But that did not stop her
from shelling out her large eggs each morning. I want readers

103

of this article to understand fully that I did not force her for
egg production. All she got was quite plain, viz., brewers’
grains, pollard or sharps, bran and chopped green stuff, all mixed
up into a mash not too wet. I also gave the same mash twice
a day, a real good feed each time, and occasionally a handful
of wheat or maize. ‘The mash was made as follows, the same
as I feed all my ducks: one-half brewers’ grains, the other
half composed of Pollard and bran (more pollard than bran).
The greens are added. I consider a good strain of Runner
ducks, allowed to mature, given free range, fed with-good, whole-
some food such as bran and pollard mixed with greens (one
meal a day can be either maize or wheat) ducks treated so must
lay well and pay well, and will beat hens hollow, both in the
number of eggs laid, also in profit to their owner.”

A feeding-point which I want all to notice is that there is
virtually little difference in the feeding practices of different
handlers. Barring some variations in proportion, nearly all are
using the cheap, common feeds: bran, Alfalfa, green or dry, all
green stuffs available, and a little corn or wheat for a one-feed
per day grain. One has used some buckwheat; one uses some
oats, even for the babies, but sifts out the hulls. Sprouted oats
are as good for yarded ducks as for hens and chicks.

It will be a great good for all if our southern friends will
try some of the special feeds of their localities, carefully, and
report results. One southern breeder will try peanuts. Mr.
Stoddard, Riviera, Texas, is advocating wire-net housing for
fowls in that locality. All these hints must set us thinking and
experimenting. | |

A very practical difficulty which meets the handlers of laying
ducks is that, in mid-winter, the ducks, being largely night layers,
must be in reasonably warm quarters, or the eggs will freeze.
Breeders of ducks especially noted for laying should, therefore,
plan for warmer housing than others find necessary. This’ does
not mean that they must provide close, stuffy houses, for these

104

will not work for the good health and vigor of the stock. The
best thing any one can. do to make his shelters warm for stock
of any kind is to locate them where they are sheltered from wind.
The closer they are to shelter on the windward side, the warmer
they will be. A second good aid.toward the needed warmth for
laying ducks, is deep, soft litter. If this occupies only such por-
tion of the floor as will accommodate the inmates comfortably,
they will group themselves there; as they are very partial to a
nice bed. Thus, their bodies will keep the eggs warm, and early
rising on the part of the handler will do the rest.

The one who handles our ducks recently planned some very
simple houses, which have been put up experimentally. They
are really only deep sheds, being six feet wide and 12 feet deep.
The height at the front is six and one-half feet, and at the
back it drops to 40 inches. The houses are boarded closely,
and covered both on roof and sides with one of the commercial
roofings. The front is entirely filled by two curtains which
drop against the strip binding the house in front, and which open
flat against the roof whenever desirable. The more they are up,
the better for the birds. ,

This house has been planned to meet several difficulties
which experience showed. The door is on the side, rather close
to the front. It is double, having an outer solid shutter and an
inner frame covered with wire netting. The depth of the house
is to permit the easy handling of litter which I mentioned; to
allow, also, feeding near the front on stormy days, and to pro-
tect from inblowing wet and snow. ‘The curtains are of cheap
muslin. A man who had used duck, which used to be so much
recommended, told me that he thought the muslin much better.
The duck does not permit sufficient influx of air, he said. Were
it not for the color and weight, which darken the inner house
somewhat, I should use loose bagging, nearly always available
on the farm at no cost. . We do use it wherever possible.

Ever ‘since I have taken special interest in poultry, Editor.

105

Hunter has been trying to drum it into the heads of all whom
it may concern that the three points necessary to winter hens’
eggs are early hatching, good “growing” and pullets for a stand-
by. In similar way, I might make three points for ducks; early
hatching, proper feeding, comfortable housing. Without all
these the duck will not often give returns in winter, at least at
the north. The very word, “returns” points to the fact that she
must RECEIVE first. Let no breeder forget this. ,

Even when she has given her returns in eggs, it yet remains
for her owner so to educate or to select his market that the cash
returns shall be of the best. This matter is one in which our
southern people should be especially interested, as they have the
best chance, on account of their climate. In March, IQIO, a pro-
duce reporting paper gave 2214 to 23 cents as the lowest price
for hens’ eggs, reached up to the date of report, during that
season. On the same date it was reported that duck eggs were
beginning to move toward the New York market. They were
classed as “Baltimore” eggs, though some came from Tennessee
“and other western points.”’ Baltimore duck eggs were reported
as bringing 42c. at the same time that hens’ eggs were bringing
a cent or two more than ONE-HALF this price. When we have
actual market reports showing what is possible in the line of
returns from duck eggs, at least during a portion of the season,
we do not need to guess. And I note that southern inquirers
are plentiful, and eager. Europe sent us a good many cases of
eggs last year. Shall we not rather raise our own? I note
in certain market news that prices drop to “almost one-half”
on duck eggs, after Easter. But, if this one-half is even then
equal to the price of hens’ eggs, none need complain very bitterly.
The market for duck eggs has to work itself out, but it seems
to be doing very well. And I think it may be expected to im-
prove steadily, once the Indian Runner eggs get a hold in city
markets. Ignorant old New York will get them after a lit-
tle, and LEARN SOMETHING TO HER ADVANTAGE!

106

A mid-west breeder of Rumners gives, as an ideal ration for
any old ducks: mash made of wheat bran, corn meal, alfalfa
meal and beef scraps. He says that with dry housing and
water at night in all cases, the egg output is sure, regardless of
climatic or weather conditions. He likes corn, fed sparingly
and intelligently, and says that ducks “do not prefer an abrupt
change, preferring a constant ‘one-thing’ rather.” He finds that
ducks trained to receive a grain-ration with the bulky food
appear to enjoy it, but places all corn in the water troughs to
soak a little. “Otherwise, they may get a rather packed crop
of dry, hard grain.” This writer says that ducklings will “in-
variably” grow better and develop much faster when they have
a good supply of water, both at night and during meals. He
makes mash at least two-thirds the ration, in bulk, in cold
weather and for laying, and says that if ducks are well raised
and kept warm and comfortable during the winter at all times,
they “will lay without faltering.” I think this is rather near
the secret of getting winter eggs from ducks: a rich and ample
ration, with reasonable uniformity of conditions both as to feed
and housing. The same man tells of finding a breeder who was
complaining of no eggs, plucking his ducks every six weeks!
This is sufficient to explain any lack of eggs under even the best
conditions, otherwise.

In yard conditions, without natural water supply, the filthy
and ill-smelling conditions become an acute menace, and the

ducks are not a matter of pride to the raiser. On heavy land,
I would not raise ducks thus, without a sharp slope for drain-

age of surplus water. But, on light land, one may dodge this
issue by excavating a fair-sized hole, laying over it a stiffened
wire netting, and setting the water dishes on this netting. In
case of bad odors, a covering of fresh earth, or a sprinkling of
some safe disinfectant is indicated.

One breeder, who has raised several kinds of ducks, in-
cluding the Imperial Pekins, says that the Indian Runner is, by

107

far, the most profitable, and that it is much easier to induce the
Runners to lay in extreme weather than to get eggs from hens.
The methods on this place include a house 16 ft. by 25 ft. and,
a yard 24 ft. wide and too ft. long to each forty ducks. The
layers are fed four times a day; a grain and vegetable mash
early and at night, with two lighter meals in between. The
breeder says: “Twice a week a little raw cut bone or some
beef scraps are added to the mash. Cooked vegetables with
some milk added and then thickened with equal parts cornineal
and bran forms a mixture that ducks thrive upon. Either bran
or something green should form a part of every meal in win-
ter. Both are important factors in duck feeding.” This is
quoted from an article in the “American Poultry Advocate.”
The same breeder mentions cutting rye when it is frozen and
storing it for the ducks; also the use of cut clover or alfalfa
scalded, and thinks it much better to provide grit separately, not
mixing it with the feed.

On the other hand, Mrs. Mellette tells an inquirer not get-
ting enough eggs, who feeds “mill feed, ground barley and wheat,
with grit and charcoal in a hopper and all the grass they want,”
that this is not a suitable ration for ducks, and that their grit
should be mixed with the mash; as should also the green feed.
This last is probably the custom of the great majority of breed-
ers of yarded ducks.

Mrs. Mellette also says that purchasers are not asking the
color of the drakes’ heads, but “Do your ducks lay a white egg?”
She says that the ducks do not seek shelter in heavy California
rains. Last winter she had a flock of ducks laying in Decem-
ber that were hatched in July,--the last day of the month. The
ducks lay there “steadily during the winter season, when eggs
are 60c a dozen,” she says, also, that the table birds bring from
8s5c to a dollar, according to the demand. Answering in detail
just what should be fed to grown ducks, she replies: “First, a
duck needs green feed, then meat in some form, next shell and

108

A Simple, Sufficient Duck House

American Standard Male American Standard Male

Both Winners in Strong Competition
(Courtesy of M. E. Newell)

bone, and after that, a good, rich mash.” As ingredients of
the mash, she uses rice meal, ground oats, “balanced ration”
meal, rolled barley soaked till swelled, and some wheat. This
‘mash is fed three times a day when pushing for eggs. During
the rest season she feeds little to ducks on good range.

Although hundreds and doubtless thousands of Runners are
raised, both here and abroad, without water for swimming, it is
not natural, and we should, I think, consider the natural state
of a bird as much as artificial needs will allow. It looks rea-
sonable to me that the exercise of swimming must strengthen
the abdominal parts and legs, and make for better fertility in
the eggs, or at least, better hatchability. Also, that the water
hath would help to keep down inflammation, in case of straining
from laying extra large eggs, or other reason.

It is also true that the duck, in nature, probably moistens
her eggs each time she returns to the nest, because her feathers
are moist. This points to nests on the ground, or ground at
least sprinkled occasionally, to give moist atmosphere. Play in
the water gives vigor, delight, and activity, and the ducks often
mate while on the water.

You will notice that ducks cannot keep their plumage in
good condition unless they can have a water bath, at least in
muddy weather. Yet, the water which is their greatest neces-
sity is also one of their gravest dangers. It is not at all safe
to allow the young the freedom of ponds, swales or any other
place which enemies haunt until fully grown. Turtles and other
vermin make inroads into the flock and dogs run ducks down
much more quickly and surely than they do hens, unless the
ducks take to flight. Hunters are even more dangerous and
lawless. 2

A beginner cannot distinguish the sex till the sex feathers
come with the second coat—shown by the curl on the drake’s
tail. With more experience, the size and breadth of bill and

general appearance will help some, and the heavy quack of the

109

duck will distinguish her, some weeks before the sex feathers
appear.

Mr. Root says in his journal: “Both of my ducks have
blue bills, while the two drakes have yellow bills; this is prob-
ably accidental.” He thinks the first edition of this book gave
too much space to native country, coloring “and ducks that lay
only white eggs instead of eggs that are slightly tinted green
or blue.” But a little more of this class of information would
have told him that the Standard demands dull, cucumber-green
in bills of ducks and greenish-yellow in drakes, when matured.

One of the large growers of market ducks, who raises from
20,000 upward each season, says of ducks in general that he
considers that the average man has as good a chance to succeed
with ducks as with any branch of poultry raising, and that some
men have the best chance with ducks.

Because he is a man of such wide experience, I will give
his method of using machines for hatching, as told in “The
Poultry Advocate” in 1910, though not quoting much literally.
He believes that ducks hatched during the first two weeks in
May make the best breeders. He places his young birds in-
tended for breeders on sod, with access to a stream, at eight
weeks of age. Bran, corn-meal and middlings, equal parts, with
eight per cent of beef scraps, form their entire ration, fed twice
daily till mid-November. As his main food for getting eggs, he
gives:

“One part bran; one part middlings; one part low grade
flour; one part whole corn; two parts whole wheat; two parts
cornmeal; four parts cut clover hay; twelve per cent beef scrap,
sand, grit and oyster shells, all they will eat; mix with water
till crumbly.”

Fggs for hatching are washed very lightly and carefully, if
they are much soiled. “We set daily, and find we get better re-
sults than when we used to set every four days,” he says. The
(Cyphers) machines are run at 102 the first two weeks, at 102%

ace)

for a week more, then a week at 103, running up to 104 and
105 at the hatching period. Eggs are turned once a day till
the first test, at end of first week; after this twice daily till they
pip. Then all pipped eggs are turned the pipped side up, and the
machine closed till hatch is complete. “A 350-egg machine will
accommodate 288 duck eggs, and if you average 150 good duck-
lings throughout the season, you are doing well.” ©

When dry, the ducklings are removed to brooders with over-
head water heat, the temperature held at ninety. Water and
coarse sand are given at once. Next morning the first feed,
“Spratt’s Patent No. 5,” is fed, being continued for four days,
when they are gradually worked on to mash. This mash con-
sists of six parts bran, two each of corn meal and middlings,
one part low grade flour, five parts cut green feed, and ten per
cent of beef scrap. This is the ration, up to eight weeks, when
the breeders are separated and fed as above noted, and the
market ducks get more corn meal, (twice as much) more flour
and a little more beef scrap. The cut green feed is lawn clips,
cut green clover, corn fodder, Essex rape or wheat. At ten
weeks they go to market. They have had water only to drink,
and all precautions are taken to keep them out of the water.
“A muddy or dirty duck will not thrive.” This man says that
one cent a pound additional cost of production means one thou-
sand dollars loss to him; he is,-therefore, good authority to tie
to, because he knows what gives best results. He says it is
important to have sandy or well-drained soil. ‘Water in the
right place is good, but remember, the day of the puddle duck
is past. To get the price to-day, your ducks must be raised
under sanitary conditions, and ducklings so raised show the
benefit of such treatment.”

System and Forethought in
Making a Market :

CHAPTER XI

Up to the time of the present writing, Indian Runner ducks
have been kept so busy in supplying the demand for eggs for
hatching, that they have not had time to “bother” with market
eggs. The fact that the young grow to mature size in the short
period of something like twelve weeks has made it possible to
sell hatching eggs freely during two-thirds of the year, even to
northern breeders, while those who want eggs to go south will
take them at almost any time except in the very hottest months.
Some do not even make this exception. A letter received late
in November-says: “I am filling some orders to southern cus-
tomers. The half-Waltons are doing a good share of the lay-
ing.’ A note received in late October of this year from a well-
known breeder, mentioned just having taken off a fine hatch
of ducklings from the incubators, and said that he was still
hatching for himself every egg he could hold to. I do not
think the later hatched birds ever attain such good size, but
they help out while stock is still scarce. Among the early
hatched birds, in our own yards, we frequently have males which
go a half-pound above Standard weight.

1I2

Last year, a breeder told me that he filled one order for
5,000 eggs. Perhaps others fill even larger ones. But he was
obliged to call on neighbor breeders for quite. a proportion of
his order; since it would take 250 ducks three weeks to lay
5,000 eggs, even if every duck laid every day, and,every egg was
perfect. This is, of course, beyond the limit of laying for any
flock of domestic fowls of this size. Or for any flock.

“What sellers they are!’ is a suggestive sentence regarding
Indian Runners, from a private letter received here in October,
i910. This attribute has belonged to these ducks ever since I
have known anything about them. The demand has snapped
up;—usually before winter,—all that could be raised, for breed-
ing; and even then it was not satisfied with the amount of the
supply. This market, both for eggs and for stock has, in one
sense, made itself.

But, in the future, as the farms work more into raising
Indian Runners, there will need to be some systematic effort
to make markets which will take all the supply at a satisfactory
price. Considering the matter of price from the actual, intrinsic
value, since the eggs of the Runner average to weigh one-half
more than the standard, market hens’ eggs, they should be worth
one-half more. This must be discounted a little by the fact
that “an ege’s an egg,’ and, for strictly table use, three hens’
eggs will “go farther” than two ducks’ eggs (usually serving
three persons, ) though the eaters will not get the same amount
ef nutriment. There is also the old prejudice against ducks’
eggs to be reckoned with. Judging by intrinsic value alone,
when hens’ eggs bring forty cents in a firm market, Indian Run-
ner ducks’ eggs should be worthy sixty cents. Whether we
shall ever attain to this as a permanent standard of comparative
values, I am unable to prophesy. At Easter, I think there will
be no difficulty in doing it; at other times, until the market is
firmly established, we may, perhaps, find it necessary to take
a price from five to ten cents above the market price of hens’
eggs at any given time, or less at some seasons.

113

I know of one case in which in New York market, a
breeder sold Indian Runner eggs in crate lots, at 17¢ and up-
ward, more than the going price for fine hens’ eggs. This was
at Easter time, and several years ago, even before all eggs were
as high in price all the time as is now the case. I know, too,
of a certain physician, practising in a small town, who recom-
mended Indian Runner eggs for his patients, as preferable to
hens’ eggs. In that city, the Runner eggs have brought at least
five cents more than hens’ eggs, regularly, through some years
and down to the present time. This does not seem enough, but
when we remember that the Runners are more prolific than hens,
that they lay during a longer average period, and that they will
thrive on coarser feed, with less coddling, and with cheaper
housing, the argument in favor of the Runners is pretty strong.

There is one point about selling which I want to make as
emphatic as possible. This is: the sellers must ignore the pre-
judice against duck eggs—a relic of a careless age, or poorer
ducks—except when obliged to meet it through the inquiry of
a possible customer! Talk about the good qualities of the Run-
ner eggs, and especially about their size and their sweetness.
They have both, so that your arguments are ready for you in
the goods you have to sell, regardless of the class of goods your
grandfathers sold. If you have eggs enough to warrant it, put
an advertisement into your town paper, offering eggs at a stated
price, and telling the points in which they are superior to hens’
eggs. When the people have read it times enough, they will
believe it. This is the best way to make a market for any
poultry products, if you have enough to make it an object. It
costs very little, and it enables you to sell birds when they are
ready, instead of holding the good till the backward catch up,
which they seldom really do. Besides, if you word your notices
to that end, you are educating your possible customers up to your
class of product, and when they want stuff, they will seek you.

While I do not, at present, urge that the Indian Runner

114

be grown specifically as a market duck, our recent experience
shows that it can be thus grown, and profitably so. We placed,
in the village paper, a fifteen-word advertisement offering table
ducks, at door, alive, at one dollar each. A single insertion sold
all we had to spare, within two weeks. A little earlier, we made
an opening into the trade of a high class city club, at the same
price, dressed. It makes little difference as to the last, if one
have the time for the work, as the feathers will more than pay
for it. Inasmuch as ducks, like the commoner fowls, come about
half males, there is always a surplus of these. There will also
be a proportion of old ducks to work off, each year. I think
it would be better, in general, to send these in one lot, to a city
market.

Selling anything is a psychological experience. Many are
good salesmen, because they have some natural keenness which
enables them to go about it right. Experience may add much,
also. And, because it is a psychological thing, it may be learned
through a genera! study of psychology, the results of which will
-apply to every experience in business, social or family life. It
sounds fearsome, but it is fascinating and practical.

For those who cannot help to busld up a market, there are
opportunities now which were never before offered. One east-
ern firm is offering, during the autumn of 1910, highest market
rates on good poultry of all kinds, and furnishing coops, return-
ing the price of coops when they reach the store with their
consignment of poultry.

115

Educating the Market

CHAPTER XII

One morning, I invaded the down-town streets of the big-
gest city, where Commission Houses are thickest. I interviewed
‘men whom I knew to have been selling Indian Runner eggs, and
men I had never heard of. I questioned small dealers in pro-
duce from the farms, and the oldest and largest firm, I think,
in the business in New York. At least, I was told that they
were one of the oldest and largest, and knew eggs from A. to Z.,
and back again! | |

At this last place, I struck what seems to me the key to the
situation, in this as in other matters. And it is along the line
of what I said last year. “We can’t educate the market,” said
the firm’s representative, protestingly; we aren’t near enough
to the consumers. We have to take what comes to us, and sell
it if we can, and that is the whole of the Commission business.
If the market is to be educated to the use of duck eggs, some
one else must do it!” |

Very few firms would allow that Indian Runner or any other
duck eggs were wanted in New York, during the latter part
of the year. The market has not been used to them, and a large
proportion of the buyers are prejudiced against them. There

116

are some nationalities that like them, however. The Irish, it is
said, are so partial to green that they will even take a green
duck egg. :

The situation in New York at the time of writing—Novem-
ber—is about like this: “Very few near-by eggs are arriving,
and these, even when from henneries, are often badly mixed with
old eggs. New laid quality has become very scarcé and it is
hard to get enough fancy whites to supply even the limited de-
mand. Values are quite irregular. Very fancy, large, new
laid, hennery whites could be peddled out up to 43c and 45c,
but there are very few such; and jobbers would hardly pay
more than 41c and 42c for the best.” This was the report of
The New York Produce Review, under date of Oct. 18, rg1t.
At the same time, in another column, fine lots of “strictly fine
full, strong-bodied fresh (western) were rated at 28c for the
best.” There are some lots of western graded and candled eggs
which even though showing very little dead loss, contain too
few full fresh to exceed 22c and 23c. The better grades of
regular packed western have had a moderate demand at 24c and
25c, these passing fairly high in the grade of firsts. Occasion-
ally, a lot of ungraded stock shows enough new laid quality to
reach 26c, but there are not many as good as that. One other
sentence: ‘There is fair call for useful summer eggs at 17¢
atla face |

Here, we have what seems to me a situation impossible to
hold: a market keen for large, fancy white eggs, reaching in
early autumn as high as 45c at the extreme; a perfectly good,
sweet large fancy white egg in sight for this market so that it
may have a good supply, and the market looking askance at this |
offered egg because, forsooth, of a “prejudice.” “Fresh dirties”
and “‘checks” western ungraded and “useful summer’ sorts—all
these are attractive to the buyer, but not the strictly white,
translucent, extra large fancy which is knocking at the market
door! Does it seem to you that such a condition will hold

117

long? Do you not begin to wonder what is the underlying rea-
son for the unhelpful attitude of the Commision Houses toward
the Indian Runner egg? I have not yet been able to ferret out
the reason for this attitude.

I put it up to the representative of one of the largest houses:
“Is it not reasonable to suppose that a perfectly good food pro-
duct like the Indian Runner egg will make its own market, in
time, when it begins to come in in quantity?’ After some
hesitation, the point was admitted. “Yes; it would sell at some
price. You can sell anything in New York, if you will sell it
cheap enough; but,” he concluded, triumphantly, “that isn’t ‘New
York Market’.” 7

At another place, while agreeing that New York did not
want duck eggs, the representative of the firm (which is selling
them for shippers) told me that if they laid well early (which
would add to the average price) they would, even now, equal the
average of the Leghorn eggs in price. He thought that, in time,
as the market found that it must deal with the Runner egg, the
average price might rise.

At another very large place, while there was still this in-
explicable undertone of opposition, or, at least, of doubt, the
representative told me that the yearly average price of duck eggs
would figure out 35c a dozen, as things are now. He said that
they would sell to 45c in the spring. Speaking to my question
as to this egg making its own market, eventually, he said that
while it might go slow at first, it would surely sell. He stated
that the Irish and the Germans were good buyers of duck eggs.

Another firm said that the duck egg would undoubtedly
make its own market with a premium on hens’ eggs, im time.

On the day I was in the market, “Leghorn” eggs were quoted
up to 38c as the extreme fancy price. Duck eggs were then
selling at 25c to 30c. In order to understand the varying re-
ports regarding the Indian Runner eggs as compared with hens’
eggs, we need to know two things which are hard to realize: one

118

oe

is that, before Easter, duck eggs sell far above hens’ eggs, some-
times being at a premium of 50 per cent; the other. is that, later,
they bring about the same as hens’ eggs, while in autumn, they
sometimes fall below.

This last is anomalous, and I think will be reversed when
the Indian Runner egg has had time to prove itself. It does
not seem reasonable that any market demanding a large, fancy
white egg, should long hold aloof from such an egg when of-
fered, simply because it bore a different name from what was
customary. Commission men say they cannot deal with theories ;
they must take facts as they are. They have a hard enough
time, some of them think, even at that! It remains, then, to
change the facts. The facts are already somewhat different
from what they were a year ago. A year ago, scarcely a com-
mission dealer in New York knew about the Indian Runner—or
had so much as heard of it. Now, many of them know more
or less about it.

I have been considering quite seriously, putting a small adv.
in a New York paper, describing the merits of the Indian Run-
ner. Such a move would mean calls upon dealers for the eggs.
But it does not seem wise to do this just now, since to work
up a call before there is much chance to supply it would be likely
to do more harm than good.

Meanwhile, this whole matter narrows down to one of
individual business ability. Did it ever occur to you that the
reason eggs are such a good farm crop is that they sell them-
selves? Extra business ability may greatly enlarge the income
from a specified number. But even without that special ability,
the egg crop can be sold to reasonable advantage, because the
demand is ahead of the supply of the wanted quality, much of
the year.

It is still true that very many who have gone into Runners
are disposing of their output as fancy eggs at an inflated price.
The number of advertisers known to me this year is nearly

119

double the number offering Runner eggs for hatching last year.
It is coming to this, now: a paper that came in from the south
this morning carried a big advertisement, the burden of which
was Indian Runner Ducks. It said: ‘“‘Will have, to arrive to-
day, 50 fawn and White I. R. Ducks. Drop around and see
them. Will sell cheap.’”’ You must admit that this isn’t so
bad for a small southern city, so early in the game! I rather
think it distances New York. But there is a distinct reason:
one of the dailies of this same city has been acting as a sort
of wet nurse to the poultry business for several years. Don’t
tell me enterprise doesn’t count! And that is what the individual
grower needs.

A letter of this morning said: “If I can only dispose of the
product, you need not be greatly surprised to see this farm
covered with Indian Runners before many years.” This was
from a beginner, who had not yet tried the market. Another
of my letters from the same state says: “We have 18 pure
Indian Runner Ducks to start with. They lay a nice large
white egg. We get soc per dozen the whole year; but yet we
know nothing about ducks!”

Another writes: “I am a general farmer and not a poultry-
man, but I have a flock of 55 ducks (Runners) and a large and
growing southern trade. I can increase ad libitum. Have
handled Runners four or five years under range, and know
what they should be worth to the farmer as well as any one
in the United States. Also, I know the good and the harm
the fancier does the farmer in poultry, particularly in Runners,
and so thoroughly appreciate your good work in this book (first
edition of Runner Duck Book.) Ii I were not an advertiser,
I would write more as simple justice to the duck and to advise
the south of what it means to it.” Later, this breeder wrote me
that he had been obliged to return a large proportion of the
orders for eggs through inability to supply the stiff demand.

One beginner, who had products to sell for the first, in

20

the spring of 1911, and from a good-sized flock, sold some of
his eggs very early in the New York Commission district at
prices above those of hens’ eggs. Later, he sold eggs for hatch-
ing, and a good many day-old ducklings, getting fifty cents apiece
for the best of these.

Mr. Hunter recently took occasion to say: - “The Indian
Runner is a very small duck, comparable to the Leghorn hen in
size, and considerable use has been made of the comparison in
the effort to capture public favor.” This is exactly the kind of
a blunder which might be expected from people who are not
breeders of Indian Runners, and who show how little they know
about them by just such unnecessary and mistaken flings. As
a matter of fact, the Runner is not as small in proportion to the
“mammoth” Pekin as the average Leghorn is in proportion to
the huge Brahma. In the second place, no use whatever has
been made of the comparison in size, by Runner breeders.

They compare the Runner to the Leghorn because it is an
exceptionally active bird, a non-sitter and a phenomenal layer—
all of which are claims made decade in and decade out for the
Leghorn. They have, heretofore, made no claims for the Indian
Runner as a market fowl, because they felt that she could make
her record on her laying ability alone.

Now, however, the logic of events makes a record for the
Runner as a market duck. Her breeders have not pushed for
it; her detractors have gone out of the way to say how small
and worth-little she is; and the market shows them all wrong.
More might have been claimed than has been claimed! Not
even the most rabid commission merchant in New York has
said aught but that any duck, well fattened, would sell. And
now we see the Indian Runner pushing the Pekin out.

During 1911, the Indian Runner proceeded to make more
history as follows (according to the story just published in our
most influential poultry publication): On a farm where they
handle so much poultry that the feed bill is reported as $150.00

I2I

a day, and the housing capacity for growing ducks is 30,000, the
Indian Runner has turned things topsy-turvy. The story goes
that the Pekin, here, as everywhere in recent years, was the
staple market duck. But the proprietors of this farm had a
large call for four-pound ducks. To supply this demand, they
decided in 1910, to try the Indian Runner. From purchased
eggs, they raised 1000 of these ducks. These ducks were re-
ported as reaching the desired four pounds in weight as soon as
the Pekin would reach five and one-half pounds, and doing it on
about half the feed. It is not profitable, these breeders say, to
sell the Pekin at four pounds’ weight. This is exactly where
the Runner gets in its innings. And, whereas all the output
formerly went to New York, a local trade has been developed,
taking practically all the present product. Hence, it’s “a fig for
New York,” at this plant.

At the time the reporter was at the plant, two young men
from the south were there studying the possibilities. Nor 1s
this the first interest the south has shown in this matter. Early
in 1911, I received a letter discussing the Indian Runner for
the Southern market. A part of it read as follows:—‘“At the
age of five weeks, I haven’t a duckling that weighs less than a
pound and a half. I never, in all my experience with poultry,
saw anything grow like an Indian Runner duckling. My duck-
lings are the curiosity of the neighborhood, and I am satisfied
that I can dispose of both stock and eggs at good prices just
as fast as I can produce them. During the greater part of the
winter here the temperature rarely falls below 40 degrees, and
anything near zero weather is unheard-of in this country. I
can hatch ducks all winter, and by spring will have about all
I want for my own use. We have here a city of some 40,000
inhabitants, and from what I can learn, there are not a half
dozen men within a radius of 300 miles of here that breed the
Indian Runner. In addition to that, we have all Mexico south
of us, which is rapidly settling up with small farmers. Just

122

the other day I had an inquiry from away below Mexico City.
A local supply man had received a request to put him in touch
with some one who had Indian Runners and had referred him
to me.” |

There are other indications which show that the south is
not quite asleep and letting this her opportunity pass. A glance
over. the entries at the Missouri State Poultry Show, even as
long ago as late in 1910, might teach a little something. With
409 exhibitors, and 47 varieties named as on exhibition besides
a “lot of odds and ends,” only twelve varieties could show more
specimens than the Indian Runner. Even the Bronze turkey—
almost Missouri’s patron saint—had only 78 to the Indian Run-
ner’s 67. And the Bronze ranks as an old timer, now, while the
Runner is just beginning its conquering course.

I wrote to a man in New Hampshire whom I knew to have
been raising Indian Runners for eggs during some years, asking
him how he found his market. In October, 1911, he said that
he was getting thirty cents in Boston market, while offered at
the same time, 38c for hens’ eggs. Probably the situation would
be even more than this in favor of the ducks, in the spring. As
time passes, it is my opinion that it will even up at both ends
of the season.

This correspondent said: “I don’t know how we can bet-
ter the market, but in time there will be a demand for duck
eggs all the year, when people learn of their superiority over
hen eggs. Last year, we kept account of the duck eggs laid.
Ninety-seven ducks laid 154 each.”

I wrote Park and Pollard, the well-known Boston dealers,
who, having both been expert poultrymen before going into mar-
ket handling, are more than usually likely to know their business.
They replied: “We have interviewed various egg dealers in
the large market in Boston, and find there is a considerable
demand all the year around for ducks’ eggs. It has been espe-
cially good during the later winter and spring, and generally,

123

the supply has not been equal to the demand. The average
price for Indian Runner eggs is five cents per dozen less than
the top price for hennery eggs. Regarding the Indian Runners
as market ducks, they are not in high favor, as all dealers would
prefer a duck that weighs five pounds or more at ten or eleven
weeks.”’ Readers must remember that Boston market is, in many
respects, exactly the opposite of many other large city markets.
And, as the average of hens’ eggs in market may bring only

J

around half “the top price for hennery eggs,’ mentioned above

the story is rather favorable for the Runner eggs instead of uf
favorable, as one might at first glance think.

Poultry, as well as other history, is in the course of such
rapid making that we forget first occurrences and conditions,
even though we ourselves were once in the midst of them.

Suppose, for instance, that the poultry public could once
more place itself back twenty years or something like this dis-
tance, in time, and watch the Pekin duck make its fight for
favor as a market duck. In May, of this year of writing, I saw
this matter referred to editorially in The American Hen Mag-
azine. ‘This is what was said: “Odd as it may seem, it was the
duck growers who first won the victory on a large scale. We
say ‘odd,’ because the duck men had to create their market.
There was no demand for green ducks, meaning ten and twelve
weeks’ old Pekins, weighing four to five pounds each, until James
Rankin, Easton, Mass., known as the ‘father of the Pekin Duck
industry in America,’ built up trade in this line by sending pairs
_ of tender, green ducks of his production to friends and acquaint-
ances in and around Boston.”

The Indian Runner has no such hard task as this, for she
finds a market asking for duck meat, and a market asking for
large, white, “full-bodied” eggs. She can supply all these. The
one thing she has to do is to convince the people that her claws
to egg quality are just claims: that she can,—to use a modern

phrase, “deliver the goods.”

A most excellent suggestion was made public by the late
Chauncey E. Anderson, of Pennsylvania. He quoted from the
Cleveland Daily Leader, under date of March 23, 1911: “Eggs,
fresh gathered, extra firsts, 18%c dozen; firsts, 17%4c dozen;
current receipts, 1644c dozen; seconds, 15c; duck eggs, 28c and
30c.”” Following this, Mr. Anderson urged that duck breeders
send in regular consignments of Runner eggs to city markets,
“and use every effort in your power to have them regularly
quoted in the market columns of the daily papers. You will
reap the benefit in the sale of stock and eggs for hatching.” Mr.
Anderson closed his article as follows: ‘My advice is by all
means secure a strain that lays pure white eggs, as they are
more prolific than the others.”

Selling and Cooking Value of
Indian Runner Eggs

CHAPTER XII

There are three aspects under which eggs may be considered,
viz., as breeding material; as market stock; as a household
necessity and luxury. The last is the strong point, if we take
numbers into consideration; yet, as the number of eggs produced
depends quite largely, in some cases, upon the breeding value, it
seems to me rather fitting to consider the eggs as breeding ma-
terial, before taking up the other two points.

Indian Runner eggs, at their best, hatch better than any
other eggs of which I have had personal knowledge, taking the
season through. During the 1910 hatching season, we had
them running for a long time, under actual test, at from 95 per
cent to 100 per cent fertile. One hundred per cent of fertility
does not, necessarily, mean a one hundred per cent hatch. But
it is known that duck eggs generally hatch well when all the
conditions are favorable, as compared with hens’ eggs. They
need a little more moisture while under incubation, than do the
better-known hens’ eggs.

The real value of the Runner eggs, as breeding material,
will rest very largely on the conditions under which the ducks
are kept. In order to be able to hatch near the one hundred
per cent which we take as ideal (and not impossible a part of
the time) the conditions of yarding, feeding, etc., must also ap-
proach the ideal. There must be fair room, proper proportion

126

of males to females, sufficient shell material and grit, and plenty
of fresh, lush green feed, besides the grain and meat, in various
forms, which comprise the usual rations, not to mention the
indispensable water to drink. It will not do to neglect any of
these points, if one desires, or expects good hatches of good
ducks.

There is, too, yet another point that needs consideration. I
think breeders all through our land have been far too careless,
in the past, as to the length of time eggs were kept before ship-
ment. It is hardly fair to blame them harshly, because it has
been widely published by the leaders that eggs would keep, with
good care, from three weeks to a month, and still hatch rea-
sonably weil. Experiments at the Cornell Station show that
this is a fallacy; that (hen) eggs hatch without loss from
depreciation to any great extent, up to two weeks. After that —
time, they lose rapidly in value for hatching purposes.

I have known an early shipment of 200 hens’ eggs, from
one of the most prominent breeders, to give less than twenty
chicks. There are two reasons which promptly present them-
selves, beyond the possibility of infertility: these are, possible
chilling of many, and possible holding beyond the age when
they were fit to ship. When eggs are scarce, the temptation
to hold them longer than one would do later in the season, is
strong, and it is buttressed by the known fact that they will
keep longer in cold weather than during summer heat. The
carriers, too, often put a shipper in the wrong: sometimes by
careless handling, against which we are helpless, because we can-
not prove it unless there is breakage; sometimes by undue delays
on the road. Several times last season, I knew of shipments
being twice and three times as long on the road as they should
have been. One shipment which, had it been a passenger, would
have gone through in 36 hours, was exactly a week on the road.
A shipper has a right to calculate on prompt carriage, but the
carriers, by a delay like this, may hold his eggs beyond the period
of value for hatching purposes. Breeders need to keep these
points always in mind, and I think it is wise to err on the safe
side, if any, in shipping any kind of duck eggs.

As market stock, the eggs of the Indian Runner have opened
up possibilities never before ahead of us, at least, as far as we
could know. They not only furnish the large sized product that

127

everybody likes to buy, but, under favorable conditions, they can
be produced more cheaply than the smaller hens’ eggs. J do
not, by any means, wish to tenrpt every one to take up ducks.
There are some points about handling all ducks, especially in con-
finement, that do not commend themselves to the average person.
Among these are the filth of their yards and the work of dressing
the carcasses that must, eventually, go to market. The first of
these can be overcome by proper management, on the right kind
of location. Ducks can be kept, and do thoroughly well in con-
finement, but this makes more work for the handler, as a matter
of course. |

_ We have had Indian Runner ducks, raised wholly in con-
finement, begin to shell out the eggs while still just less than four
and one-half months old. ‘This was without any conscious effort
to push them.. It is not common to them to lay quite so early
as this. But they do lay ecarher than hens, comparatively speak-
ing; they do lay more persistently; they do lay better m the
autumn; they do make a higher record, on the average. When
we add these items to the fact that they lay an egg exactly one-
half larger than the standard of size for hens’ eggs, and that
those of the best English type have long been bred to lay white,
translucent eggs, it is easy to see that their value as producers
of market eggs is abnormally high, as compared with anything
yet known.

The eventual value of the green type egg turns entirely on
the question as to whether or not a green egg will sell in the
market. Possibly—a remote possibility, 1s it not ?—possibly some
one will have business acumen and push sufficient to popularize
the green egg just as some localities have popularized the brown
egg of the Asiatics. This is not saying that they will not sell
now; I hold that a perfectly good food product in as good gen-
eral demand as eggs, should always sell, if the producer have
any skill at all in marketing. But I leave it to the good sense
of the reader whether the Indian Runner, so prolific and quick
maturing; so likely therefore, to increase remarkably fast, would
not better think twice before she lays a green egg for the aver-
age buyer. For, it is the average buyer to whom we must cater,
in all market offerings. We can educate him, but it is slow
work, and it takes a skilled market man to do it. Our Irish
population, it is said, do not have to be educated; they swear by
green wherever they find it.

128

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‘Half Waltons’’ in Snow ‘“Queen’s Credit’’ ( Male)
Runner, Embden Goose, ‘‘Queen’s Content’? and Hens’ Eggs

English Standard Babies

When we come to the third point, the consideration of the
Indian Runher egg as a household luxury, we can make out a
tremendous case. For while this “luxury” delights the producer
by selling at special seasons, occasionally, at twice the price of
hens’ eggs, it usually brings but five to ten cents more a dozen,
and late in the season sells on a par with hens’ eggs. They are
proportionately cheaper for the consumer than hens’ eggs, just
as soon as the latter get above twenty cents. They fall below
this figure so seldom nowadays that it is safe to state that the
ducks’ eggs are always cheaper than hens’ eggs, if only ten cents
more a dozen. ‘Two of these eggs will, at any time, take the
place of three hens’ eggs, even when the latter are fully up to
the standard, market size, which is two ounces. No eggs were
ever more delicately sweet than those of the Indian Runner; so
that it may fairly be said that we shall soon have a luxury
which is not extravagant, and which, it is hoped, may soon be-
come plentiful on our markets. At the date of this writing, only
a few favored buyers can have them, because there are not nearly
enough to go around. The cities have hardly heard of the Indian
Runner, as yet.

I am fortunate in being able to report a household test,
made by Mrs. Grant M. Curtis, the editor of a Table Department
in the “Reliable Poultry Journal.” A breeder of the white-egg
type, in western New York, sent to Mrs. Curtis’s office some
eggs for testing on all cookery points. The breeder’s confidence
in the English type of Indian Runner as a winner was not mis-
placed. When the eggs were hard-boiled, or poached, the only
fault that was found was that the whites were a little tougher
than those of the hens’ eggs, cooked in the same ways; but, the
yolk was reported as smoother and richer tasting. Soft-boiled,
anid used as frosting, they were affirmed to be equally good with
hens’ eggs. In custards, two eggs to a quart of milk took the
place of the five eggs the cook was wont to use, and “it was
as delicious a custard as we ever tasted.”

The lady who made these tests tried the eggs in making
sponge cake, also, “believing that sponge cake is one of the most
difficult cakes to make. Three eggs were used in the place of
five with equally good results.” The report closes: ‘We could
not detect any unusual flavor in any of the eggs used, not even
in the custard and cake. Having tested them, we should not

“129

hesitate to purchase such duck eggs. . . . in preference to
hens’ eggs, which are, alas, ofttimes so far below what should
be standard size that we wish, with ‘Uncle I. K.’ that eggs were
sold by the pound.” As Mrs. Curtis acknowledged herself to
have been, before this test, somewhat prejudiced against duck
eggs, this may be regarded as a handsome amende to the Indian
Runner. ;

Not enough eggs remained to try omelet making. If the
experimenter could have tried it, she would have found that it
is in this point that the Indian Runner eggs score most strongly,
perhaps. They make a most delicious omelet, will bear more
liquid than hens’ eggs, for this use, and may be used with water,
instead of milk, when necessity demands. The firmer white
doubtless is an advantage here, as the omelet is not so likely
to fall, and some like it better with water than with milk, while
the scalded milk is thus avoided in the case of the many invalids
to whom milk seems to be poison.

As an involuntary testimony to quality, the following little
story of a IQII happening is significant: Two “cranks on eggs”
were about to have their breakfast. It was mid-October, when
laying things generally are prone to go on a strike. There
were 75 laying (?) hens and to laying ducks on the place. The
day before, the 75 hens had given seven eggs; the ten ducks,
five eggs.

Here,” said one, “if you like hens’ eggs best, you can have
hens’ eggs this morning.”

“T imagine I do,” naively responded the other,” but. when
they are both fresh, I can’t tell the difference. I’ve tried and
tried to find,—as the little girl said about liver,—‘something in
it that don’t taste good, and I really can’t. It’s just an old
prejudice, as I proved the other morning by eating a duck egg
inadvertently, thinking it was a delicious hen’s egg.”

130

Some Spurious and Some Genuine
Indian Runners

CHAPTER XIV
By Mrs. Andrew Brooks.

[There is no more faithful and ardent worker, and none
with stronger convictions of the superior value of the English-
bred, Penciled Runner of the white-egg type than Mrs. Andrew
Brooks. She raises them largely, has the courage to pay for
good stock, and almost literally lives with and for her Runners.
It was her courage and persistence which stayed the downfall
of the Penciled type when the American Standard threatened
to sweep it off the earth. (I say this, because it was she who
would not be said nay in her petition that I, who was breeding
Runners to the English Standard and not bothering my head
about the rest, should use my influence to save this valuable
white-egg Runner for the farmers of the country.) It was she
who sent eggs and ducks to be tested by those whose opinions
were worth while; it was she who showed eggs to prove their
size and purity of color; it was she who showed ducks where
she knew they would be discredited by the judge, in order to
learn valuable facts about judging as it is.

In a prominent poultry journal, late in 1911, Mrs. Brooks,
by request, told something of her own start. She there said:
“Poultry keeping has solved the problem of an income for the
women of the farms.” One year, Mrs. Brooks herself sold

131

almost $1100.00 worth of products from about 50 Runners and
250 Barred Rocks, mostly at market rates. Now, she does bet-
ter, still holding to both, while “the ducks have it,’’ as it were.
It will be seen that she knows whereof she speaks.

The remainder of this chapter gives her view of the Indian
Runner situation. C. S. V.]

As Indian Runners have been in this country only a few
years, and an unjust and misfit Standard of so-called “Perfec-
tion” was made for the breed, practically disqualifying true Run-
ners, the present mixed and confusing state of affairs is not sur-
prising.

In making a standard, attention should be paid to nature’s
laws. This was not done. It is an established fact that the
natural colors of Indian Runners are fawn and white, the female
having penciled plumage, while the drakes have cap and cheek
markings of dull, bronzy green with rumps bronzy black or
brown, turning dark brown or fawn when coat is old (the shade
depending upon the length of time that has elapsed since the
molt, but never the same as body color). The American Stand-
ard has demanded the same color in both sexes, namely, “light
fawn,” even throughout. Such a standard placed a premium
on faking: blood foreign to the breed was bred in to secure light
fawn color with no penciling on plumage of females and drakes
having head and rump markings the same as the body color. As
would be expected, this addition of foreign blood has brought
about grave structural changes, altered the color of the eyes, also
the color and size of the eggs, besides lessening the number of
eggs. The chief value of the Indian Runners lies in their
capacity to be veritable egg-factories of large, white, market-
able eggs. As layers of such eggs, and as foragers, the Stand-
ard hit them hardest, requiring wrong position of legs, thus
destroying the characteristic Runner gait and making less able
foragers of them. The new Standard is an improvement over
the old one in some respects, but it demands the brown eyes, which
have been acquired in making over the breed to conform to
standard requirements, and to produce the required color of
plumage. A shade in color of feathers would not much matter,
but it should not be gained at the sacrifice of utility value. Long-
fellow in The Builders said:

132

“Nothing useless is or low
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.”

This applies to fancy and commercial poultry; for, it should
be remembered that the whole poultry industry is a structure
resting upon the “firm and ample” foundatiens ef economic
value. If we tear this down and destroy utility, how long will
the industry survive ? |

I have had much correspondence with Indian Runner breed-
ers in all parts of the United States and all their testimony proves
the same thing, viz., that eggs from the light fawn American
Standard-bred ducks are laid in fewer numbers; such stock does
not begin to lay so early in the season by some weeks; also
ceases laying earlier in the fall: while true Runners do not
cease entirely, even during the moult, as I can testify from ex-
perience. A worse fault, in the light fawn ducks, is that they
mostly lay green or tinted eggs of smaller size, that do not sell
for so much. Our best markets call for white eggs, and owing
to their mixed parentage these light fawns cannot reproduce
themselves reliably. All my correspondents tell the same story
of sending for eggs at high prices (naming the most prominent
breeders;) of getting green or tinted or mixed colors of eggs
that produce ducklings which show lack of uniformity, some
being mostly yellow, some light and some dark. One man
wrote: “I want to acquire a flock of genuine English Runners
that will be second to none. I have enough of mongrels. I
want a duck that will lay white eggs and plenty of them and
reproduce themselves in type and markings, instead of the young
looking like they were the result of mixing half a dozen widely
different breeds. I’m sick and disgusted with my humiliating
experience with American Standard Indian Runners. I have
them that were hatched from eggs from ducks claimed to score
96 points, and there is not one closer to the Indian Runner Stand-
ard than is a Rowen.’ Another, late in the season, said he had
spent weeks in trying to find eggs from flocks guaranteed to lay
only white eggs and had not discovered one such flock. He
judged by the discussion which he read in the papers about the
Standard that I must have them, and added: “For heaven’s
sake don’t say you have all the orders you can fill.” One in-

133

quirer asks: “Will you furnish ducks that are guaranteed to
lay white eggs only, or money refunded?” It is a significant fact
that most of such inquiries come from the midst of the locality
where the light fawns are most extensively bred. Another
writer, who met with disappointment in trying to breed to the
American Standard, wrote of buying the highest priced birds
the most prominent “light fawn” breeder would sell, keeping
them side by side with real Runners with the same care and
feeding, only to find that they were not so valuable as the ducks
they were trying to displace, as they were so much poorer layers,
and of tinted eggs. Hundreds of ducks laying green or tinted
eggs are kept in some flocks. The eggs are scattered broadcast
all over the country to purchasers who believe that they are
buying Runners, innocently supposing that “Runners are Run-
ners,’ and not knowing that there are imitations of the real
article, which are sold as “genuine.” ‘This is only a faint picture
of the situation. No wonder that true Runners are scarce and
high priced. :
Who can count the cost of the harm done? It is beyond
computation. The fancy and the utility should go together, but
as matters now stand prospective buyers will have to decide
whether they will breed for show and fancy requirements or
whether they want the most valuable, practical duck from the
utility point of view, the ones giving best money value. For us,
we will concede Standard excellence (?) to the fanciers; they
are welcome to the duck they have created! Theirs will answer
for exhibition purposes, as judges must place awards according
to Standard. We will concern ourselves with maintaining the
breed in its highest type and purity for the farmer and utility
breeder. Runners are pre-eminently the farmers’ breed. They
are at their best on the free range of the farms, as they get
along with less care than hens. They are what the farmers
need in these days of high priced labor. Runners will lay
as many eggs as the best breeds of hens. No other breed
of ducks will lay so many white eggs; no others are such
foragers, or so capable of gaining a large share of their living,
thus reducing the cost of feed, and they adapt themselves well
to’ adverse conditions. In the eighth annual Australian Lay-
ing competition two pens of Runners averaged above 200 eggs
each. As no meat was obtainable, no animal food was fed in

134

their ration during the time of the test. What hens fed in like
manner could have made so good a showing? Meat or animal
food is even more necessary for ducks than for hens. When
given free range they find much of it for themselves, working
as they do, busy as bees from morning till late at night (stormy
days the same or more so) thrusting their bills deep into the
grass, searching for worms or insects. Nothing escapes their
_ notice! A farmer who is a near neighbor of ours has six Run-
ners, yearlings. Now, in the latter part of November, he is
receiving 4 or 5 eggs every day and feeds them only corn; no
mash at all. As they have free range, I suppose they balance
their own ration. They are kept dry-bedded at night: the first
essential in raising ducks. Early hatched young ducks or year-
lings, or older birds, if managed right, will lay as well as, or
better than, hens, in the fall when prices are high and eggs most
appreciated. I know personally that, with such care as the
average farmer can give, they will give flock averages of 150
eggs each ina year. ‘The results of the annual duck laying com-
petitions in Australia are very interesting and instructive, but I
am not so much concerned with the records of such tests or the
records of individual layers, as I am in the flock averages of
these ducks, when well managed on the free range of the farms
or in the hands of the utility poultry breeder. The labor ques-
tion is getting to be a serious one, but the ducks help to solve it,
as they are more easily cared for than hens. They are not
troubled with lice, nor with mites, so that there are no houses to
spray nor roosts to grease, no frozen combs to treat, no drop-
ping boards to scrape off, no scratching up of gardens or flying
into grain bins. Nor is there need for so many males as are
needed with the larger breeds: one male being sufficient for ten
or more females on free range. They can be housed very
cheaply; fences cost less, if the ducks have to be yarded, as
low fences will hold them; when matured, they eat no more than
hens. It is also less work to raise the young stock, because they
grow up so quickly. The young ones may be brought into lay-
ing at five months of age, and eggs sell for more than hens’
eggs. As the call has been so great for hatching eggs, I sell
at market only a portion of the time, but I have sold enough to
know that eggs will sell for five to six cents per dozen more than
hens’ eggs. Have shipped to a commission dealer in New York

135

_for the month before Easter when I received from 18 to 20
cents per dozen more than I received for hens’ eggs. I learned
that after Easter commission men pay a premium of five cents
per dozen more than they pay for Leghorn eggs. They may
_be packed in one side of the case by themselves, if there are not
sufficient to fill the case.

Runners are so valuable for layers that they are not sold
to any extent at market for the table. But the surplus males
find sale at good prices, the meat being so tender and delicious.
The Runner is really in a class by itself, as it has such rich,
gamy flavor. Since these ducks grow up so quickly and cost
less to feed than Pekins, there is no reason why enterprising
poultrymen cannot build up a good trade for them as marist
ducks.

136

The Future of the Indian Runners
in America

CHAPTER XV

There is no question, I think, that at the present writing, the
majority of the fanciers of the country still favor the plain, fawn
type that has been convicted of laying so many green eggs
(showing impurity, Mr. Jaeger says!) It could hardly be other-
wise, indeed, since the American Standard has demanded for
some years back, that only such birds should be bred. Of course,
all but the independent thinkers followed like sheep, whatever
the Standard demanded, whether it meant a good Indian Run-
ner, or not. And, I have no doubt that most of them have
taught themselves to admire the plain feathers most, in the Indian
Runner, even if they did not do so at first. Yet, the very same
breeders would go into raptures over a Cornish hen if she
showed extra good penciling! Many of these breeders are so
inconsistent as to argue for the greater beauty of the plain Run-
ner, when it is a well-known fact that pencilings, lacings, and the
hke have given all the more distinctive beauty to our wonderfully
varied breeds of the ornamental types among our domestic fowls.
Those distinctively known as “ornamental” (therefore especially
beautiful, of course) are the ones that show most variation in
colors and markings. The plain are simply—well, plaim, and that
is all there is to it.

Many of the judges, I am told, have Indian Runners. I can
name several whom I know to breed them. Of course, they have

me YY,

exceptional opportunities to get good, Standard birds, and it
would be too much to expect of human nature that all these
people should now be willing to have a differing bird made Stand-
ard, off hand, no matter if it is the true, original Runner, and
a better economic bird.

There were, in a dozen of the best poultry papers, during
the height of the 1911 season, something like 300 breeders ad-
vertising Indian Runners, virtually all claiming the “true” type.
Those of the plain-feather camp, meant “true to American
Standard.” Those who bred the original Runner, meant “true
to the English Standard type,” though I fancy most of them
have tried to lighten the color so as to make the pencilings less
distinct. Indeed, indistinct penciling is what the English Stand-
ard calls for.

The content of “truth” in the Indian Runner of the future
should be incontestably large, since there is so much variation,
yet all “true.” It is also true that variation is likely to con-
tinue. Among all the breeders whom I know to have carried
the English type, the large majority have announced their inten-
tion of keeping to that type, regardless of what the American
Standard for fancy fowls may be. ‘The chief, economic reasons
which they give are: the better laying of the English type; and,
the white eggs. The promise is, then, that there will continue
to be bred in this country two types of Indian Runner, differing
from each other really more than the white Orpington, say,
differs from the white Plymouth Rock. Both will claim to be
“true,” and the confusion that will result will be intensified as
numbers increase.

This means—(as I must again emphasize )—that it behooves
every one who wants Indian Runners, no matter of which type,
to inform himself thoroughly as to the differences in the two
types, and to be very sure that he buys of a breeder who has
what he wants. The two types have been bred together, which
of course makes more confusion. The oldest of the breeders
here of the English type sold birds, years ago, to the chief pro-
moters of the American Standard type of to-day. Very many
breeders have tried both types. A dozen or more of them have
written of their experiences in the poultry papers. Of them
all, I think only one has reported that the American type were

138

the better layers. All the others stated that, when handled side
by: side, the English type were the better layers.

-I am not for a minute in opposition to those who really
want to breed the Runner of the American, Standard type:
What I do want, is to make sure that the farmers, who are to
supply the great majority of buyers of Indian Runner eggs for
hatching, for some years at least, shall get the type of bird that
will prove most practical. They will stand, to a man, for the
white-egg type, I am certain. They will also stand for the Eng-
lish type strongly when they are made to know that it calls for
a bird with longer body, and therefore with more egg and meat
capacity. Even the Sceretary of the National Indian Runner
Club said publicly (June, 1910): “If we lower the type and egg
production by having them fawn and white, we colnet should
have a different Standard.”

When we think of the best English Indian Runners, a yard
long from tip of bill to tip of tail, and compare them, mentally,
with the runty, American Standard type too often shown in past
years, it is easy to see why the breeders to the American Stand-
ard fight against having the Standard weight raised. Many of
the pictures of the American type show a bird with neck about
as long as body, not including tail, the body being short and
stumpy at the stern like the one at the right in our cut of the
American Standard-bred males. Often the stern is so stumpy
that it gives a peculiar impression of being “out of drawing
someway, as an artist would say. It does not balance grace-
fully. The effect of having the legs set so far back in order
to get the running balance, and then tucking the stern up so
stumpily, is indeed, ungraceful in the extreme. The exhibition
birds here shown are from some of the most prominent breeders
of the American type of Runner and shown in 1909 and I9gI0.
Neither in shape nor in carriage can they compare with really
good Indian Runners.

If each breeder will have the courage of his convictions, and
advertise plainly what he has, it will save much confusion for
buyers, and an immense amount of disparagement of Indian
Runner breeders. At the present writing, there are plenty of
buyers for both types. Some time ago, I received an inquiry for
“first-class fawn and white stock.” Believing that this customer
wanted the American type, I answered briefly, telling him that

139

the English type of Runner which I carried, would not win
firsts for him in any large show, under present Standard de-
mands. To my surprise, back came a letter wanting my birds,
the price being the same as would have been asked for the same
grade of birds bred to American Standard.

It is scarcely possible, I think, to insist too strongly that
those who believe in the Indian Runner as bred to the specific,
English Standard, should make clear in each advertisement, just
what they are offering. Only in this way, can we avoid the in-
finite confusion which is likely to arise.

In 1910, I said: “It would be only just if classes should
be made, in the shows, for the English-bred duck. It would
be the only amende that could be made for having taken the
breed name away from this duck and given it to a substitute
duck. It is perfectly practicable, as I see it, to have classes for
the English type, and judged by the English Standard.” This
good work has now begun.

As I wrote the closing words of this chapter in 1910, there
came to my desk a new booklet from a breeder of the “fawn and
white” type for the last six years. Referring to the Runners
of the American Standard type, he mentions their “real value
as a layer of large, green and white eggs of much value.” He
also states that he would prefer all white eggs. Inasmuch as
this testimony comes from the midst of the “fawn and white”
camp, surely none who breed the English type can be accused
of unfairness or of bias in making similar statements. And
for their own trade, they need only to make it widely known
that they have the strain known to lay white eggs, and trade cell
run to meet them, as it has been doing for some years past.

Future? Her future brightens daily! Nearly every mail
brings good news of some new opening, some change to higher
status of the genuine Runners. Only occasionally is there any
doubt of the Runner.

I read on this day of writing, one of the very few stories
of failure with the Indian Runner. The story ran that the first
sitting of eggs from “a prominent breeder” gave only two weak
ducklings; a second sitting gave five ducklings, all of which
lived to maturity, but from the two ducks, June-hatched, only
one egg was received in March, and later, the owner sold them
in disgust. I do not hesitate to say that one of two things was

140

.
SS.

back of this: either the stock was run-down, weak show stock
or close-yarded till it was worthless, or else the ducks had no
decent care.

Again I say: Whether the genuine Indian Runner of the
best type will make good or not does not enter into the question
of the future of the breed here at all; she will absolutely do her
part. That is proved. The only thing that does enter as a real
question is whether or not growers have sufficient business ability
to make a market for the eggs as table eggs. The Runner will
furnish at least three varieties of fancy ducks; her “difference,”
her distinction ensure that. But, if, as a farm duck, she is to
make good, people must be able to sell the eggs. If James
Rankin was able to push a duck not at all wanted into the mar-
ket, and to create such a demand that these birds sold by the
tens of thousands in individual growers’ hands, are we willing
to admit that we cannot make a market for a product in such
infinitely greater demand, viz., large white eggs? I affirm that,
if this matter does not work out as we would like, it will be our
fauli, not that of the Indian Runner!

The most interesting possibility, to me, just now, is the
future of the Indian Runner. Every day adds to the possibilities.
The morning mail, this November day—the day before the
Indian Runner Duck Book goes to press,—brought me the news
that the big Chicago show would receive the English Runners
and the white Runners on the same terms with the American
Standard type. For this immediate outcome along the line of
justice, we have to thank especially Mr. Theo. Hewes, the Sec-
retary, and Mr. W. J. Patton. I hope breeders will show their
appreciation by sending a good class.

There is really no limit, as things promise at present, to the
helpful future of the Indian Runner. The south has been ship-
ping a few duck eggs in late winter, the best being scheduled as
“Baltimore eggs,” at wonderfully good prices. She would be
missing the greatest new, farm opportunity that has ever been
offered her did she not add the Indian Runner to her helpers, and
send more duck eggs through the channel already open. She
sees it, I know, for inquiries from the south multiply!

Under date of March 6, 1910, “The Egg Reporter” quoted
22Y%4c and 23c, “the lowest price so far this season” on hens’
eggs, fresh gathered firsts. At the same time, ducks’ eggs were

141

referred to as “beginning to move; the best coming from Balti-
more, and these bring 42c.” If as the New York dealer assured
me, New York market, even now, will average 35c a dozen for
ducks’ eggs, the year around, the 180-egg duck will bring in
$5.25. Who would ask a better investment ?

An attempt was made by a Northern breeder to influence
the future of the Indian Runner in this country by sending a
pen of the Penciled, white-egg English-bred type to the National
Competition in Missouri, just beginning its work with the month
this book goes to press. Once more, the Express Companies
killed the hopes of one of their patrons, as they have done in
thousands of instances before. The birds were nearly all
smothered en route, and thus was the Penciled Runner hindered
from showing her pace in utility work. It had been hoped that
a test in this country might settle many questions now open to
difference of opinion.

142.

The Newer Variety,
The White Runner

CHAPTIDR ’ XVI

The future of the Indian Runners must, of course, include
the variety just coming into popularity here, viz., the White
Runners. Though but recently advertised for the first in this
country, the White Runners promise to interest the public at
large so greatly that they deserve accented notice. In Califor-
nia, in the middle-west, in the middle states, they are already
being advertised. Last year, I said: “One cannot say much
that is definite about their quality, as it is likely, it seems to me,
to be exceedingly ‘spotty’ for some time.”

_ My reasons for thinking this lay largely in the fact that
the very evident crossing of some of the original importations of
Indian Runners with white ducks had resulted in so many badly-
mixed specimens, showing much broken white, of which buyers
of Indian Runners complained so bitterly. There cannot be
much doubt that very many White Runners have arisen through
some of these crosses. The most likely cross is that of the
White Pekin duck. I saw Pekins in a recent very large show,
that were as upright in carriage as almost any of the Runners,
and one specimen in especial that was fully as erect in carriage
as any Indian Runner I had ever seen shown. As the Revision
Committee’s recommendation for Pekins at St. Louis was’ for
a body one-fourth longer than the ideal presented them by the

143

artist, and a clean-cut throat without dewlap, the Pekin will be
even better than in the past, as a promising foundation for a
cross leading to White Runners. A Runner built on such a
foundation would be too broad and thick-set, for many genera-
tions, no doubt; but human nature is such that it would doubt-
less be used, in the future, as it has in the past, if pointers =
experience can be at all relied upon.

I wish to call especial attention to the cut of a White Run-
ner female given herewith. It is by far the most typical speci-
men of the Ideal Indian Runner, that I have yet seen. This
bird is, moreover, a straight sport, as far as anything I really
know can show. I do know that no white blood -has been in-
troduced into her ancestry since it came into my hands, some
years ago. Other breeding experience would make any of us
argue that there might be white blood somewhere behind her.
As to proof,—there is none, and the testimony of her beautiful
shape seems to throw the Pekin out of consideration, unless, by
some trick of Mendel’s law, we have a dominant white from the
Pekin, in connection with a dominant shape from a Runner
ancestor. But I think Mendel’s law, as he would have had it
applied, is being more questioned now than ever before since
Professor Bateson brought it to our notice. That is, the many
investigation experiments, in the effort to prove it a breeding
law, seem to show it less helpful generally in breeding than was
at first expected. Besides, it is a known fact that all colored
breeds sometimes “sport” into white.

These White Runners are not an absolutely new product
except in possible specific cases. Mr. H. DeCourcy, speaking
of the Runners as they appeared in Ireland some years ago,
wrote, in the Reliable Poultry Journal, that the Runners had
been bred for several years by farmers, with no regard to type
and feathering. Yet he stated that the distinctive features of
the bird were so fixed that they still tended to dominate. I noticed
that he referred to the “carriage” as penguin-like, not making
the blunder of the American 1905 Standard in saying that the
FoRM is like the penguin, which is positively absurd!

He spoke of three distinct varieties at the time of writing,
known in Ireland, and said that the penciled fawn and white—“a
beautifully-penciled fawn color,” as he described it— “certainly
has a distinctive shape and carriage which the other varieties

144

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possess but in a modified forrn, and it is most probable that both
the Brown-and-White and the White varieties have been bred
from the original Fawn-and-White, either by the admixture of
foreign blood, or by selection, or by both.”

This testimony must be considered by any fair mind as
absolutely unbiased, because it was given before our Standard-
makers discovered that the plain fawn, with white, was ‘‘the one
and only true.” It was published in this country before there
was any question of breeding to a solid fawn as far as our Stand-
ard was concerned; though our Standard was fitted to some
sports in the hands of a single breeder,—if I am correctly in-
formed,—soon after.

Last year, I said in the first edition of the Indian Runner
Duck Book: “The white bird, everywhere and always, is a
popular bird. And, as soon as the public is assured that it
breeds true in any measure, we may look for a strong movement
toward the White Runner.”

The march of events is already showing my 1910 prediction
just. One breeder of the White Runners calls them “the com-
ing duck of America’; another says: “It seems to have out-
classed its parent in the matter of egg production and in the
production of pure white eggs.” (Its parent, from this point
of view, being the American Standard Runner). Also: “as a
fancy fowl, for pleasure and profit, I doubt if there is any other
that has ever proved itself the equal of the White Runner Duck.”

To be sure, these are the words of lovers and advertisers
of the variety. But even T. F. McGrew, the prominent judge
and head of a Correspondence Department in a widely-known
system of schools, voiced something of the same opinion re-
cently in a private letter, when he said: “I believe that the most
popular of all Runners will be the White Runner Ducks.” He
also referred to the fact that breeders are dropping the adjective
“Indian,” in this variety, with commendation.

With reference to the varying quality of White Runners, I
might mention a report that came over from England concern-
ing some which were exhibited there last autumn. The regular
correspondent of “The Feathered World” (the most highly re-
garded English poultry periodical, I believe) said, with regard
to those appearing at the Crystal Palace Show (England), after
describing the new “Upright Mysteries,” or “Fairy Fawns,” as

145

some call them: “As to the Whites, penned alongside the ex-
tremes above named, perhaps it’s scarcely fair to criticise. Com-
parisons may be unfair. I can, however, now see the force of
the proposed sprinting contests; the ‘made in Germany’ frater-
nity might very well benefit by a trot around alongside the ‘up-
rights.’ Still, they are under way, and no doubt in a few years
we may see them as perfect in soda-water-bottle character as
the winners of to-day, when even the orthodox ‘Fawn and whites’
had to take a back seat.”

This indicates that far the best birds seen in England to
date are the “fairy fawns,”’ and not the ‘orthodox’ Fawns, nor
the Whites. Where the first sport of the Whites was an ex-
ceptionally good bird, the progeny has a chance to be better than
most of the Fawns. When not exceptional, the progeny is likely
to be common-place also.

A large group was shown in photograph in One of the widely-
circulated poultry magazines a few weeks before this writing.
In this flock appear a few birds of extra-fine carriage!; in it,
also, appear a goodly number of the kind one would rather not
have intending customers see. This shows that even the best
breeders do not have all good birds, and that to buy of any one
simply because he is known to have some good specimens and
not knowing anything about the actual birds one is buying, is too
likely to prove a fiasco.

Earlier, I had thought it probable that quality in the White
Runner might be a thing difficult to secure at once. But a cor-
respondent sent me a photograph a few days before this is writ-
ten, showing, I think, a more beautiful bird, for type, than I
have ever yet seen at the shows in any one of the three varieties,
—a picture, indeed, of white loveliness. I am exceedingly sorry,
from one point of view, that this book is to come out before
the great shows of 1911-1912, as I think the Runner alleys in
these shows will be wonderfully interesting, this season. I am
hoping, both that the management in general will give us classes
for White Runners and the penciled, English type, and that
breeders will make haste to fill them with good specimens.

The White Runner has been described in at least one
American periodical as having a full breast, with more meat than
the original Runners carried. From the fancy point of view, I
think that to breed thus to a fuller breast would be a mistake.

146

I happen to have personal data upon this very point, because
many of the very best (otherwise) of my penciled Runners
have had this full breast. It makes a pretty bird, but not one
so distinctive as the original type called for in the English Stand-
ard, and shown in our American Standard by Mr. A. O. Schilling.
The birds from painting in R. P. J. for September, 1911, look
to have fuller breasts by reason of being a trifle thinner just
below the breast. Frankly, these birds give me the impression
of woodeny decoy ducks. A group in the owner’s catalogue is
decidedly more beautiful.

These birds, and the “ideal” birds shown in the American
Standard of Perfection, stand at an angle of 45 degrees.
The English ideal is 55 to 65 degrees when in motion, and 65
to 75 degrees when on the alert. I believe that there are few
in this country that will reach 55 to 65 degrees when in motion;
but I have seen birds easily reach 75 degrees when on the alert,
and they were reported from the Crystal Palace Show in Eng-
land last year as reaching practically go degrees! These were,
however, from the “new blood from the native source” recently
acquired and bred in there, and I presume this country can show
nothing quite equal to it, even in an instantaneous pose. I have,
indeed, seen birds “stand on end,” as it is expressed, and other
breeders have told me they had them. But I cannot see all the
flocks of the country, and no pictures yet sent me show such
an extreme pose. The American Standard gives no definite
tules for carriage, the nearest it comes to this being in the words,
“carried erectly.”

White Runners are reported now in hand that have laid
unceasingly for more than a year, eight of the eggs being equal
in weight to a dozen hens’ eggs. Why should any one question
the equal value of the White Runner with the original fawn and
white sorts? Of the two variations in blood in this country
of which I have knowledge, one is, J] know, a sport; the other
also claims to be a sport. The White Runners are also said to
be more valuable than the original types. If they are, in my
opinion it is simply because, at the present time, they wiil bring
higher prices. As to actual, intrinsic value, I doubt if either
the white or the penciled excels the other by the value of a
copper. Both are “gold-mines” for the people who have skill in
handling and skill in marketing, be it as utility birds or as the

147

fanciest of the fancy, and the charmingest of the charming. In
the last, however, the lovely white variety is a lap or two ahead
of its blood-rival, the sprightly fawn and white. These. who
think “trimmings” add to the beauty of all things, may possibly
convince themselves that the fawns with their liberal trimmings
of white, are the lovelier. | ee

One breeder says of the whites: “They seem to fill the
long-felt want for a fowl that is easy to rear, one that grows
rapidly and matures at an early age, one that produces eggs both
summer and winter, and a fowl that can live on almost any kind
of food. Such a one we have in the White Runner duck.” She
continues, “I can conscientiously recommend this new variety,”
and says that those who raise it will be in the happy condition.
of never waiting for either eggs or spending money in the purse.

In some quarters, there has been much doubt as to the kind
of bird the new, White Runner might be. Suspicion seemed
to forecast that it was likely to have outside blood. It is, as I
have said, no doubt, possible that this may be true of some
strains—if such they can be called. A sample of this feeling
reached me in July of 1911, from one who had seen a cut of
Somebody’s White Runners, so-called. _ He wrote:

“T don’t think I care for any White Runners; the head is

too large, the neck too thick, the body too short, the breast
prominent, and carriage bad; in fact, it lacks about every char-

acteristic we look for in a Runner. - It would seem that there
is now, and will be almost as much danger of breeders using
foreign blood to get white baie as there has been to get solid
light fawn and white ducks.”

This does not look like a man who would invest early in
White Runners. Yet, having found a breeder whose word he
was willing to trust, he bought a start in White Runners in the
following September. His first letter, after their receipt, was
of this tenor: “I am very much pleased with the White Run-
ners. All that I have seen heretofore and all the cuts that I
have gotten hold of have shown such coarse, angular birds that
I had almost concluded that I didn’t want any White Runners
in mine. However, I felt sure that would either bréed
good ones or he would not breed any, and you can tell him from
me that I have no kick coming on White Runners.” 3 2

Judging ftom the way they have been received thus. far by

148

those who know of the better types, I think it quite safe to say
that their popularity will distance that of the parti-colored
varieties. In the premium list of the Southern International
Poultry Association scheduled for December, 1911, special high
first prizes of $10.00 for singles have been given to sixteen of
the most popular varieties. Among the sixteen appear both the
American Standard Runners and the English penciled type!
This is the first long step ahead in the matter of justice to the
penciled Runners. I congratulate the managers, and especially
the Secretary, Mr. Loring Brown, who was largely instrumental
in having this action taken.

‘ [A few days later, Mr. Theo. Hewes, Secretary of the great
Chicago Show, announced that Chicago would make a class for
the Penciled Runners. This gave great encouragement to those
breeding to the English Standard and will help to keep a true
source of supply for the farms. During the same week, word
came to me that the Runners with original native blood would
surely be shown at Madison Square Garden in December, 1911.]

Some have ventured to inquire, rather timidly, as to the com-
parative productive capacity and vigor of the White variety.
As to vigor, shown by fertility, I may say that I have known
the White Runners to produce eggs running to nearly 100 per
cent of fertility for months in succession. An occasional sitting
would give 100 per cent of ducklings. This is as good as any
variety of duck or of hen will do. The White Runner is not,
of course, thoroughly tested in this country. But when she is a
sport, I know no reason why she should not be equal in all re-
spects to her fawn progenitors.

As to beauty and charm, a customer recently wrote me, after
several months’ experience with the White Runners: “I do
not think there is anything else in birds that can be so enchanting
as the White Runner.”

At the present time, the older variety es been so widely
advertised, has made small fortunes for so many, and has so
caught the public fancy through its style, that it has the greater
call, by far. But, inasmuch as the white bird has ever been
the favored one in American eyes, and masmuch as it has
greater beauty with at least equal utility qualities, I look for
the White Runner to sweep the decks as soon as sacsgete are enough
of them to fill the demand.

149

As to the possibility of filling it at the present time, a letter
recently received puts the situation very clearly:

“T have found it difficult,” writes this stranger, “to keep
what I needed for my own pens. But friends in California have
been successful in their ‘beggings’-—and begging it really seems
to be out there, as breeders simply refuse all offers—and I am
having forty birds come on, from which I shall select for myself
some new matings.” When it has come to buyers begging to be
allowed to pay “any price” for birds and then not getting them,
it promises well for the White Runner, as an investment.

The White Runner, having, when descended from sports, all
the effort toward high breeding of many years behind her in
her ancestry, has the possibility of improving with great rapidity.
I do not hesitate to say that one who starts with Indian Run-
ners will do infinitely better to get one good pair rather than
six pairs of average birds, even though the pair cost as much
as the other six pairs. Probably this is true of all fancy fowls.
I know it to be true of the White Runner.

Mr. Scott, who claims the highest egg record of the world,
makes the public statement that he considers the loss of 24 duck-
lings out of 35 in his first season with his present birds as the
best thing that could have happened to him, since the few left
comprised the famous heavy layer, so that most of his stock
came from her. To get all one’s stock, from the beginning, from
an extra layer or an extra-good exhibition specimen of extra
vigor is the one thing that may count most for the beginner.
It saves him from many years of up-hill work in trying to breed
up to the good specimens.

As to ornamental quality, there is nothing in nature more
lovely and charming than white water fowl playing on the
water. The swans have been considered most attractive orna-
ments since time immemorial. Men have bought white domestic
fowls wherewith to ornament the lawns of their country places,
merely for the beauty of the contrast. The White Embden
Goose and the White Chinese variety have also been much used
as ornamental fowls. But the White Indian Runner, slimmer,
graceful as a fawn, distinctive in shape and carriage, bids fair
to become infinitely more popular than either the goose or even
the swan could ever become.

Altogether, it seems to me that the most beautiful and dis-
tinctive fancy fowl ever offered to the American pabhien is the
charming White Runner Duck.

150

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